I write regarding the bill S.1486 — The End of Life Options Act — currently in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. It was reported out favorably last year by the Joint Committees on Public Health and Healthcare Financing. Please thank state Sen. Jo Comerford for her sponsorship.
I urge everyone to contact Senate President Karen Spilka, and Ways and Means Chairman Rodriguez urging them to bring this bill to a vote as soon as possible. Then the full Senate can debate and vote on it as well. The sooner this happens; the more time will remain for the House to do the same before the end of the legislative session on July 31.
I strongly support this bill because it is about dignity in dying, not only in living. My 95-year-old mother was admitted to hospice as this choice was the only option for her. She repeatedly told her physicians and family she did not wish any further treatment to prolong her life. Her pain levels were high. She refused morphine for days. She was forced to finally instruct us and her physicians she wanted no more food or water as the only way to relieve her suffering and her wish to die. This is inhumane requiring the strength of resolve and will, which she had, to end her suffering. Repeatedly she would say “I want to die and go to heaven to be with Dad, why is it taking so long?”
I want the legal right in Massachusetts to choose a painless death through medical aid in dying. I do not want, if the time should come to me, to have to make the same choice as my mother. Please let this bill go to a vote and urge its passing and becoming law as it is in so many other states.
Dennis Helmus
Northampton