SACRAMENTO --- Conceding they lacked necessary votes to pass controversial physician-assisted suicide legislation, AB 651 co-authors and Assembly Democrats Lloyd Levine and Patty Berg announced July 12 they are suspending their efforts until next year.

"The authors claim they will resume their efforts in January after they have time to 'educate' the public," said bishops' California Catholic Conference executive director, Ned Dolejsi. "To date, education of the public has proved to be their nemesis --- when people understand what they want to legalize, they reject the idea."

Dolejsi noted that assisted suicide has been rejected twice in California. In 1992, voters rejected Proposition 161, which would have legalized assisted suicide and, in 1999, the California Assembly failed to pass the "Death with Dignity" Act.

"This year, relying on polls which asked questions like, 'would you like your physician to assist you in dying' rather than 'would you like your physician to help you kill yourself,' the authors Assemblywoman Berg and Assemblyman Levine, like the proponents in the past, assumed that the majority of Californians liked their idea. They were wrong," said Dolejsi.

According to Dolejsi, Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a broad coalition that includes the California Medical Association, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the CCC, will continue their efforts through the year's end and into 2006 to defeat the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.