As a longtime local physician, I was dismayed that the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health on March 22 did not advance the End of Life Options Act, also known as the “death with dignity” bill (H.1194).
The 15-member committee didn’t actually vote on the bill, just referred it for further study, which effectively killed it for the rest of this year.
I’m surprised they weren’t even convinced by the fact that a solid majority of our state’s doctors, who were surveyed last year by the Massachusetts Medical Society, favored making medical aid in dying for the terminally ill a legal option — as long as patients are of sound mind, facing great pain and suffering at the end of their lives, and able to self-administer the prescribed medication.
That led the Medical Society to change its long-held opposition to medical aid in dying to the position of “engaged neutrality.” It meant that if the Legislature passed the law, the Medical Society would assist its members who voluntarily wished to participate in assisting patients who want to choose this option to end their suffering and bring about a peaceful, humane death.
Hospice services and palliative care do a wonderful job, but pain management still isn’t effective for a number of terminally ill patients. Six other states (California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado and Vermont) and Washington, D.C., have passed similar laws. Recently, one branch of the legislature in both New Jersey and Hawaii passed a proposed bill.
Please contact your state senator and representative, and urge them to support the “death with dignity” bill when it is introduced again next January, and to make our state the seventh one to offer its citizens this important choice in end-of-life care.
Katherine J. Atkinson, M.D.
Amherst