Court Opinion

ID: 9722375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:27:57.734063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:34.660621
License: Public Domain

COMPTON, J.
Although I have concurred in the very well reasoned and superbly crafted opinion of my colleague Justice Beach, I feel compelled to write separately and reflect on what I consider to be one of the real tragedies of this case, which is that Elizabeth Bouvia has had to go to such ends to obtain relief from her suffering.
Fate has dealt this young woman a terrible hand. Can anyone blame her if she wants to fold her cards and say “I am out”? Yet medical personnel who have had charge of her case have attempted to force Elizabeth to continue in the game. In their efforts they have been abetted by two different trial courts.
This is not to say that those members of the medical profession and those courts were not well motivated. In each instance the persons involved have expressed a concern for the sanctity of life and a desire to avoid any conduct that could be characterized as aiding in a suicide. Undoubtedly, those persons were, in no small way, influenced by the presence in our law of Penal Code section 401, which imposes penal sanctions on persons who aid and abet in a suicide.
In my opinion, as I shall point out, the application of that statute to circumstances such as are present here is archaic and inhumane.
I have no doubt that Elizabeth Bouvia wants to die; and if she had the full use of even one hand, could probably find a way to end her life—in a *1147word—commit suicide. In order to seek the assistance which she needs in ending her life by the only means she sees available—starvation—she has had to stultify her position before this court by disavowing her desire to end her life in such a fashion and proclaiming that she will eat all that she can physically tolerate. Even the majority opinion here must necessarily “dance” around the issue.
Elizabeth apparently has made a conscious and informed choice that she prefers death to continued existence in her helpless and, to her, intolerable condition. I believe she has an absolute right to effectuate that decision. This state and the medical profession, instead of frustrating her desire, should be attempting to relieve her suffering by permitting and in fact assisting her to die with ease and dignity. The fact that she is forced to suffer the ordeal of self-starvation to achieve her objective is in itself inhumane.
The right to die is an integral part of our right to control our own destinies so long as the rights of others are not affected. That right should, in my opinion, include the ability to enlist assistance from others, including the medical profession, in making death as painless and quick as possible.
That ability should not be hampered by the state’s threat to impose penal sanctions on those who might be disposed to lend assistance.
The medical profession, freed of the threat of governmental or legal reprisal, would, I am sure, have no difficulty in accommodating an individual in Elizabeth’s situation.
The Hippocratic Oath reads in pertinent part: “. . . I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients. ... I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked. ...” Surely, adherence to that oath would yet admit of a reasonable balancing between the doctor’s obligation to alleviate suffering and his obligation to preserve life, remembering that the term “life” has itself recently undergone substantial redefinition.
It is also worth noting that the original oath also contained the phrase “. . .1 will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abortion. ...” Obviously, the profession has already accommodated a deviation from that part of the oath.
Whatever choice Elizabeth Bouvia may ultimately make, I can only hope that her courage, persistence and example will cause our society to deal realistically with the plight of those unfortunate individuals to whom death beckons as a welcome respite from suffering.
*1148If there is ever a time when we ought to be able to get the “government off our backs” it is when we face death—either by choice or otherwise.
The petition of real parties in interest for review by the Supreme Court was denied June 5, 1986.