Second Thoughts

We are Massachusetts residents with disabilities who oppose the 2012 state ballot question to legalize assisted suicide. This legislation is dangerous and discriminatory, especially for elders and people with disabilities. We encourage Massachusetts voters to look deeper into the issue - to have Second Thoughts - about assisted suicide.

Ballot Question

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"An Act Relative to Death with Dignity" would legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. If it is not acted on by the legislature by May, it will go to a popular vote in the November 6, 2012 election. It is modeled on laws in Oregon and Washington, and would allow people who have been diagnosed with a "terminal disease" (having less than six months to live) to get a prescription from a doctor for a lethal dose of barbiturates. Though data from these two states is limited, evidence of misuse and failure of safeguards has emerged.

In a short interview with Fred Bever of New England Public Radio, John Kelly summarizes arguments against assisted suicide:

Think Again about Assisted Suicide

• Deadly Mix: Assisted suicide is a deadly mix with a profit-driven healthcare system. Pressure to cut costs, delays in treatment and limited coverage for home care can lead patients, families and doctors to choose the cheapest alternative, even if that is assisted suicide.
• Self-determination: Assisted suicide is unnecessary because current law gives every person the right to refuse lifesaving treatment, and to have adequate pain relief, including palliative sedation to die in your sleep. Assisted suicide decreases self-determination by giving doctors and insurers the power not just to cure, but to kill.
• Abuse: The proposed law is a recipe for elder abuse. An heir can be a witness and help sign someone up, and once a lethal drug is in the home, no one will know how the drug is administered. If the person struggled, who would know?
  • 1 in 10 Massachusetts elders is abused, an increase of 31% in the last three years.
  • The law does not prohibit other people – even an heir – from encouraging assisted suicide or "helping" a person make the request.
  • Once the prescription is filled, nothing prevents another person from administering the dosage.
• Safeguards: A lack of safeguards and oversight in the proposed law puts people at risk of misdiagnosis, deprivation of treatment and economic pressure to choose suicide, while protecting doctors from liability.
  • No mental health evaluation is required for depression or other treatable cause of suicidal feelings.
  • If a doctor refuses lethal drugs, the patient or family simply can—and do—find another doctor (“doctor shopping”).
  • “Terminal condition” and “death within six months” are often misdiagnosed, opening the dangers of assisted suicide to many who are not terminally ill.
  • Nothing in the law can offer protection when family pressures, whether financial or emotional, distort patient choice.
  • The law does not include enforcement provisions, investigation authority, oversight or data verification. The only foolproof safeguard is for the prescribing doctors. The law holds doctors only to a “good faith” standard, which makes any safeguards unenforceable.
• Discrimination: A law that singles out some people (such as old, ill and disabled people) for assisted suicide instead of suicide prevention is not in step with Massachusetts' progressive tradition as a leader against discrimination.

For more Second Thoughts about the legalization of assisted suicide, see Food for Thought page.

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