California became the fifth state to legalize a "death with dignity" or "right-to-die" law today when Governor Jerry Brown signed an amended End of Life Option Act, AB X2-15. The bill, which passed through California legislature last month with the amendment that it sunset after 10 years, will become state law 90 days after a special session on healthcare adjourns. That could come as early as January, the LA Times reports.

The right-to-die legislation allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to their patients, provided that patients have been given six months or less to live. As the Associated Press explains, two doctors must consent to the prescription for life-ending medication and to written requests from the patient.

“In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death,” Brown said in a statement on his decision, which was reportedly laborious for the Catholic governor. Religious groups have been among the law's foremost opponents, maintaining something about how God alone can choose when a person dies.

“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," he said.

Momentum for the passage of this legislation grew with the prominent story of Brittany Maynard, who moved her family to Oregon to receive life-ending treatment in the face of terminal brain cancer.

“This is the biggest victory for the death-with-dignity movement since Oregon passed the nation’s first law two decades ago,”Barbara Coombs Lee, who is president of the right-to-die advocacy group, Compassion & Choices, said in a statement. An estimated 75 percent of Californians are in support of the law. Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana, each allows the practice.

Previously: Right-To-Die Legislation May Pass In California Legislature After All