Most of us don't think about our lives from the perspective of the end - our deaths. We are too busy living life - school, career, marriage, kids – to even worry about what to wear from day to day. But when you witness the demise of someone, particularly one suffering from a terminal illness or disease, you realize there is a need to take a look at end-of-life planning.

In 1996 a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer. He was a man with great presence and the unquenchable curiosity of a child. Even when faced with his grim diagnosis, he remained upbeat, looking “forward” to this new adventure - just another part of his life's journey, he said.

Living through his dying days and ultimately his passing, however, was an insult to the sojourn he hoped his death would be. His final days were marked with excruciating pain, the loss of autonomy and appetite, replaced by diapers and vomit.

In his final hours, a respite from the pain came in the form of morphine drops. Unfortunately, the medication brought with it crushing helplessness for those who witnessed its side effects. Though still breathing, our friend was gone, replaced by an incoherent, babbling stranger, who recognized none of us.

California State Assembly Bill 654, the California Compassionate Choices Act, may be one step in changing end-of-life situations for the terminally ill, if it is passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.

Its authors, Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka), chair of the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long Term Care, and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), both said they believe its time has come.

The April 15, 2005 issue of “Democratic Caucus” quoted Berg as saying that a recent poll showed seven in 10 Californians support the idea of providing a terminally ill patient with a legal means of ending their life, and she believes overmedicating a patient is not honorable.

“I also don't believe it's moral to give so much pain medication that patients can't recognize their own loved ones in the end," said Berg. "I also think that compassion is a moral value ... mercy, love, justice and kindness are moral values, and I think that's certainly what the Bible teaches.”

There are those who believe there are no conditions under which a person has a right to choose to end his or her life, but there is nothing moral, spiritual or uplifting about prolonging the pain of someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal condition.

If this bill makes it through the legislature to the governor's desk, and he signs it, those who are facing a terminal illness will finally have the legal right to take the decision-making for their death into their own hands.

Modeled after Oregon's Death With Dignity law, the California bill will allow a terminally ill person to get a legal prescription for the fatal medication. First, they must receive a complete diagnosis and prognosis of terminal illness, then be explicitly advised that they medication they seek would cause death. They must make both an oral and written request to receive a prescription from their physician, and that prescription would be self-administered.

There are measures built into the bill that would prevent the physician from criminal prosecution and allow the patient the right to rescind their decision at any time.

I believe that if such a law had existed at the time my friend died, his death would have been as dignified as his life had been.

Such a law is necessary, because it is the final gift of morality we can bestow upon our loved ones.