The California State Legislature on Friday approved a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their own lives.

The legislation, which Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat and former Jesuit seminary student, has 30 days to sign, is described as a landmark victory for supporters of assisted suicide.

The Golden State would become the fifth and largest state to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending medication for qualified patients, following Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont.

In a statement Friday, Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee said, “We are optimistic Gov. Brown will sign this law because he is a compassionate person who understands Californians in agony cannot wait another year.”

Barbara Coombs Lee in Honolulu in 2012.

Chad Blair/Civil Beat

Coombs said California’s law would make it possible for people to end “horrific suffering in their final days.”

A lawyer, a former emergency room and intensive care nurse and physician assistant who coauthored the landmark Oregon Death With Dignity Act, Coombs has previously lobbied the Hawaii State Legislature to pass similar bills, usually called “death with dignity” legislation.

As in California, however, the Roman Catholic Church has fiercely opposed the progressive policy. Local lawmakers have thus far resisted enacting the legislation.

Read Civil Beat’s 2012 interview with Coombs and related story:

A Conversation About Aid In Dying In Hawaii

How Other States Treat Aid In Dying