A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide passed the California state assembly Sept. 9., according to MSN News.
Senator Bill Monning, one of the bill's backers, described the bill's passage as "a historic step forward."
MSN News reports,
The measure, approved by 43 votes against 34, is expected to be adopted by the state senate this week.
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, has long been a controversial issue in the United States, with Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington the only states to have approved it so far.
The topic was brought to the forefront in California by the case of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with a brain tumor who moved from San Francisco to Oregon and took her own life last November.
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