Existing law, the End of Life Option Act, until January 1, 2031, authorizes an adult who meets certain qualifications, including, among other things, being a resident of the State of California, and who has been determined by their attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life. Existing law makes specified violations of the act a crime, including knowingly coercing or exerting undue influence on an individual to request or ingest an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life.
This bill would repeal the January 1, 2031, expiration date of the act, thereby extending the operation of the act indefinitely. By extending the operation of crimes within the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law requires an attending physician, within 30 calendar days of writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug, to submit to the State Department of Public Health a copy of the qualifying patient's written request, the attending physician's checklist and compliance form, and the consulting physician's compliance form. Existing law requires the department to collect and review this information and to annually create a report based on this information, as specified. Existing law requires the report to include, but not be limited to, specified information, including, among other things, the number of people for whom an aid-in-dying prescription was written and demographic percentages of people who died using an aid-in-dying drug.
This bill would require the department, by no later than April 1, 2026, to meet with relevant stakeholders for purposes of seeking input on the inclusion of additional information already available to the department under the above-described provisions in the annual report. Commencing with the report due July 1, 2026, and for each report thereafter, the bill would require the department to include in the report additional data, as determined by the department, based on the input received.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Statutes affected:
03/24/25 - Amended Senate: 443.215 HSC, 443.215 HSC
05/01/25 - Amended Senate: 443.19 HSC, 443.19 HSC, 443.215 HSC