The Evolving State of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Massachusetts voters soon will decide whether to become the third state to legalize the contentious end-of-life care option for the terminally ill.

By Jaime Joyce

The Atlantic Monthly

Originally published July 16, 2012

Should terminally ill patients have the right to kill themselves? Voters in Massachusetts will soon decide. Last Wednesday, the Secretary of the Commonwealth announced that on November 6, 2012, when Bay State voters go to the polls to pick the next President, they will also have their say on a ballot measure called the Death with Dignity Act. If passed, the law would make Massachusetts the third state to give adults diagnosed with six months or less to live the option to end their lives using a lethal dose of doctor-prescribed medication.

(cut)

A study released by the Health Research and Education Trust shows that Americans are living longer lives than ever before. As a result, more individuals and families will face difficult questions about end-of-life care. In 2011, the oldest Baby Boomers turned 65. By 2030, the number of Boomers between 66 and 84 years old will climb to 61 million, and six out of 10 will be managing chronic health conditions. For the elderly and others facing terminal illness, doctors have numerous ways to prolong life. Palliative and hospice care are available to help patients find peace and comfort in their final days. But there are some people who want another option, which is the right to end suffering by taking their own life at a time and place of their choosing.

The entire story is here.

=====

Others posts about end of life issues and Death with Dignity can be found by using the "search" function on the right hand side of this blog.

Massachusetts Debates ‘Death With Dignity’

By Paula Span
The New Old Age Blog: Caring and Coping
The New York Times
Originally published May 29, 2012

Consider this an update. Last fall, when I talked with some of the 350 volunteers circulating petitions, they sounded confident about collecting 70,000 certified signatures by the end of the year. They more than succeeded, which meant the state legislature had until May 1 to act. It didn’t — to no one’s surprise — so volunteers for the organization backing the referendum, Dignity 2012, have headed back out with their clipboards.

If they can gather another 11,000 signatures by July 2, the public will decide whether the state’s physicians can lawfully prescribe medications with which terminally ill patients can end their lives. (You can read the exact language here.)

Oregon enacted essentially the same law allowing self-administration of lethal drugs in 1997, and Washington in 2009. Though their adversaries often used “slippery slope” arguments, the number of residents who have taken advantage of the laws remains quite small. After meeting all the requirements and undergoing the mandated waiting periods, 114 people received lethal prescriptions last year in Oregon and 103 in Washington. In both states, about a third of those who qualified ultimately decided not to use the drugs.
But the controversy was intense in those states, with contentious public debate and expensive media campaigns, and it will be this round, too. In both camps, fund-raising has already begun.

“It has potent national implications,” the Rev. J. Brian Hehir, secretary for health care and social services at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, said of the referendum. “We are talking about fundamental human values, deeply personal choices.”

The entire blog entry is here.