A San Diego Superior Court judge dismissed a right-to-die lawsuit on Monday, filed by three plaintiffs with life-ending illnesses asking for the right to end their lives with the assistance of a doctor, reports NBC10.
According to Judge Gregory Pollack, he can not allow the assisted suicide to go forward until the California legislature addresses the issue and changes current law.
"To the extent that Penal Code 401 unfairly blocks the wishes of certain persons affected by it, rather than this court nixing the law as unconstitutional, the legislature ought to be fixing the law so that the legitimate needs of terminally-ill patients and their physicians are recognized, respected and protected," he wrote.
In an emotional statement to the press after the ruling, plaintiff Christy Lynne Donorovich-O’Donnell -- who said she will most likely die from lung, brain, spine, rib, and liver cancer before the legislature acts -- said it is wrong for lawmakers to force her daughter to watch her mother die a long and painful death.
"What this fight is about is the difference between lawful palliative sedation that could days or weeks, versus aid in dying that could take a few minutes," O'Donnell explained.
O'Donnell then teared up as she said, "For any judge or anyone, any law or legislator, to tell me that my daughter has to watch me die painfully -- that's wrong."
In the wake of the highly publicized assisted death of Brittany Maynard, two Democratic state senators have proposed the End of Life Option Act, which allows doctors in California to prescribe a lethal dose of medications to terminally ill patients.
The act was recently amended but has yet to pass.
Watch the video below from NBC10:
