Last week's announcement that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuņez is adding his name as co-author of a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California has dismayed but not disheartened a broad coalition of opponents who are confident the measure will again be rejected by lawmakers.

Opponents of AB 374, the Levine/Berg/Nuņez bill similar to an Oregon law legalizing physician-assisted suicide for terminally-ill patients, held a "counter press conference" just a couple of hours after the measure was publicly presented at the state capitol Feb. 15, said Carol Hogan, communications director for the California Catholic Conference.

"We have been preparing because the bill's proponents warned us they were coming back again," said Hogan. She added lawmakers supporting AB 374 are already getting calls from members of Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a coalition of health care, disability rights, and grassroots advocacy organizations.

Co-authors of AB 374, Assemblymembers Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) and Patty Berg (D-Santa Rosa), were defeated in last year's attempt to legalize assisted suicide. Their bill, AB 651, failed on a bipartisan vote before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Earlier similar legalization attempts were unsuccessful in 1999 and 2005. Voters overwhelmingly rejected an assisted suicide initiative, Proposition 161, in 1992.

Levine and Berg are banking that Nuņez's influence will sway lawmakers to legalize assisted suicide in California. "With Nuņez pushing the bill, it's going to be a more difficult task to stop it, but not impossible. We're confident that the broad-ranging coalition will be successful," said Hogan.

According to Tim Rosales, spokesperson for Californians Against Assisted Suicide, opposition to assisted suicide remains strong. "These attempts to legalize assisted suicide have all been opposed by both Democrat and Republican legislators as well as groups including the California Disability Alliance, League of United Latin American Citizens, California Medical Association, California Foundation for Independent Living and the Alliance of Catholic Healthcare."

As recently as last October, Rosales pointed out, the California Medical Association House of Delegates rejected an appeal by PAS proponents to take a position of "studied neutrality" and consider supporting "decriminalization" of assisted suicide. After rejecting the pro-PAS resolutions, the CMA Delegates adopted resolutions reaffirming opposition to physician-assisted suicide.

The CMA also adopted a resolution recognizing the need for "appropriate end-of-life care," which may include aggressive treatment of physical pain, compassionate care for suffering, and eliciting and addressing a patient's reasons for requesting physician-assisted suicide.

Disability rights advocates maintain that legalization of assisted suicide is misguided public policy which would open the door to coercing sick people who are disabled or low-income to end their lives so they won't be a burden to others.

"The cost of the lethal medication generally used for assisted suicide is about $35 to $50, far cheaper than the cost of treatment for most long-term medical conditions," said Marilyn Golden, a policy analyst for Disability Rights, Education and Defense Fund. "The incentive to save money by denying treatment already poses a significant danger. This danger would be far greater if assisted suicide is legal."