YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Caught between conflicting moral arguments, Governor Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminary student, signed a measure on Tuesday (NZT) allowing physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who want to hasten their deaths.

“Armenpress” reports referring to Stuff.co.nz‎ that Brown appeared to struggle in deciding whether to approve the bill, whose opponents included the Catholic Church.

"In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death," Brown wrote in a signing message. "I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn't deny that right to others."

The new law is modelled after one that went into effect in 1997 in Oregon, where last year 105 people took their lives with drugs prescribed for that purpose.

The California law will permit physicians to provide lethal prescriptions to mentally competent adults who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses and expect that they would die within six months.