SB 1002: End of Life Option Act: telephone number.

The End of Life Option Act, as enacted in the 2015-16 Second 201516 2nd Extraordinary Session of the Legislature, authorizes, until January 1, 2026, an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to the act for the purpose of ending his or her life through self-administration of the drug. The act establishes certain procedures for making a request, prohibits certain agreements or policies from being conditioned upon or affected by a request, and provides immunity from civil or criminal liability, with exceptions, to persons present when the qualified individual self-administers the drug or to persons preparing the drug. The act provides that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide.

The act requires physicians to submit specified forms and information to the State Department of Public Health after writing a prescription for an aid-in-dying drug and after the death of an individual who requested an aid-in-dying drug. The act authorizes the Medical Board of California to update those forms. The act requires the State Department of Public Health to publish the forms on its Internet Web site, collect and review certain information, annually create a statistical report of the information collected, as specified, and post that report on its Internet Web site.

This bill would require the department to establish and maintain a toll-free telephone number for the purpose of receiving and responding to inquiries regarding the End of Life Option Act, and post the telephone number on the departments Internet Web site. This bill would require the telephone number to operate during the regular business hours of the department and be available to the public. department, on or before January 1, 2017, to post a toll-free telephone number on its Internet Web site for the purpose of receiving and responding to inquiries in multiple languages regarding the End of Life Option Act, as specified.