Editor,

When my mother was hospitalized, an ICU doctor told me, “Your mom is suffering.” I asked her, “Mom, are you suffering?” She answered, “No.”

That moment exposed something deeply wrong in how we approach end-of-life care. Across California, families are confronted with similar heartbreak. Treatments are sometimes withheld, reduced or discontinued — not because they’ve stopped working, but because someone decided that a patient’s life no longer met a certain “quality” standard. This quiet discrimination against the elderly, disabled and vulnerable must end.

That’s why I’m proposing the Life Preservation Act — a policy to protect every patient’s right to continued care, transparency and respect.

This is not about prolonging suffering or rejecting medical judgment. It’s about honori

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