The State - News from March 6, 1988

Ken Kizer, California’s top state health official, publicly opposed a proposed right-to-die ballot initiative, saying that it would put physicians in the “role of executioners.” Kizer, director of the Department of Health Services, told a California Medical Assn. gathering in Reno that he hopes sponsors fail to qualify the Humane and Dignified Death Act for the November ballot. The Los Angeles-based Hemlock Society is gathering signatures for an initiative that would allow physicians to kill patients at their request under certain circumstances. The CMA also opposes the measure.