In California, supporters of assisted suicide have adopted a similar strategy. Having failed to persuade the State Legislature to legalise it, as in neighbouring Oregon, they have resorted to setting up an advisory service. "Volunteers will neither provide nor administer the means for aid in dying," said Rev. John Brooke, a United Church of Christ minister who is an organiser of the new End of Life Consultation Service. "We will not break or defy the law."

His group will advise the terminally ill on how to find better end- of-life care and will remain present to comfort people as they commit suicide. A spokesman for an opposition lobby group, the Campaign for Children and Families riposted that it sounded like the formation of "California death squads".