How Did Gov. Gavin Newsom's Mom Die? His New Interview Brings Attention To A Difficult Topic

California Governor Gavin Newsom is finally opening up about one of the most tragic details of his life: his mother, Tessa Menzies', assisted death after battling aggressive metastatic breast cancer for several years. "I hated her for it — to be there for the last breath — for years," Newsom confessed during an interview with The Washington Post about his late mother's choice — a practice that was illegal in California at the time. "I want to say it was a beautiful experience. It was horrible." 

According to Newsom, however, it was that exact experience that ultimately caused him to throw his political support behind assisted death as he came to believe that people should have "the freedom to make that decision themselves." He told The Washington Post about his mother, "I watched the physical deterioration, the mental deterioration, just the cries of pain. She would have just suffered." 

Unfortunately, Newsom's complicated feelings surrounding his mother's approach to her own pain and suffering only further highlight the ongoing debate around assisted death, a practice that has been rapidly increasing in Newsom's native state after it became legal on June 9, 2016, via the End of Life Option Act. 

Under the guidelines of the California End of Life Option Act, an attending physician may only write an aid-in-dying prescription to patients with a terminal illness and less than six months to live. Another caveat of the act is the strict rule that patients must administer the drug to themselves. That particular guidance, however, is not without confusion. "How are we supposed to enforce the rule that patients administer the drug themselves?" Barbara Koenig — a registered nurse, professor at the UC San Francisco School of Nursing's Institute for Health & Aging, and director of the UCSF bioethics program — asked while being interviewed for an article titled, "Making Sense of California's End of Life Option Act." Koenig also pointed out the complications when it comes to health care accessibility and how one's financial situation might sway their decision, a situation eerily similar to the dangerous health insurance death spiral. "If people don't have insurance, if Medicaid is cut drastically or if an individual can't afford long-term care, some people worry physician aid in dying makes it easier to choose death," Koenig cautioned. "We need to understand if that has been the practical effect."

Then, there are the even more nuanced questions surrounding one's personal right to choose, and the family members left in their wake — just like Governor Newsom. According to a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, surviving family members of those who opt for an assisted death are not any more negatively impacted in terms of their mental health. However, another study by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network in June 2017 found that family members who witness the assisted death are more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, especially in cases where support is lacking.

According to the California End of Life Option Act 2022 data report, there were 522 more deaths under the act than the previous year, translating to an increase of 47%. Matt Valliere, the director of the Patients' Rights Action Fund, attributes these spiked numbers to Senate Bill 380, an amendment that reduced the waiting time, or so-called "cooling-off period," of the California End of Life Option Act from 15 days to 48 hours. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it. "Most Medi-Cal patients cannot get a mental health consult in less than 72 hours and are not guaranteed palliative care, but now, they can get suicide drugs in 48 hours, and the state will pay for it every time," Valliere told the Daily Mail.

Others, however, largely consider the bill a success, citing a study by Kaiser Permanente Southern California that determined roughly one-third of those who requested prescriptions via the California End of Life Option Act died before completing the 15-day waiting period. "We cannot thank Governor Gavin Newsom enough for his support to dramatically improve this compassionate act," said Kim Callinan, President and CEO of the Compassion & Choices Action Network. "With his signature, eligible terminally ill adults will soon be able to more easily access the End of Life Option Act without needless suffering and unnecessary roadblocks."