Help us oppose Massachusetts Bills H.4782 and S.2745 which would legalize assisted suicide.. Visit the Patients Rights Action Fund Action Center for information on how to support the opposition.
Author: admin
Insurer Control
Real “choice” belongs to insurers, who can deny prescribed treatments at will, even if lifesaving. In Oregon, you can qualify as “terminal” if you can’t afford your treatment, or if treatment stops for any reason. Legalization makes assisted suicide a “medical treatment,” a so-called “benefit” to be extended to ever more people, and that will always be the most profitable and “cost-effective.”
Persuasion -> Abuse
It is estimated that 1 in 10 Massachusetts older adults are abused every yEveryone is vulnerable to suggestion and persuasion. Nothing prevents self-interested family members and medical professionals from pushing for assisted suicide. Meanwhile, it is estimated that 1 in 10 Massachusetts older adults are abused every year, and COVID-19 has only made it worse. Nothing in the law can stop an heir or abusive caregiver from steering someone towards assisted suicide, witnessing the request, picking up the lethal dose, and even administering the drug — no witnesses are required at the death, so who would know? The Oregon law has invited every sort of abuse
Misdiagnosis
Studies show that 12%-15% of people entering hospice with a terminal diagnosis outlive their prognosis. In 23 years in Oregon, 1900 people have been prescribed lethal drugs, but the survival rate past six months is only 4%. This suggests that a substantial number died by suicide when they were not dying. Oregonian Jeanette Hall wrote the Boston Globe in 2011 that after a terminal diagnosis she sought assisted suicide, but her doctor persuaded her to try more treatment. “If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead,” she wrote. She has now lived more than 20 years post diagnosis. Any other elective “treatment” with such deadly results would never be tolerated!
Medical Prejudice
The doctors who decide who is eligible for assisted suicide are the same doctors who have been promoting Crisis Standards of Care that in an emergency would deny ventilators or beds for older, ill and disabled people. Ableism crossed with racism to end the life of Black quadriplegic Texan Michael Hickson, against the wishes of his wife and 5 children. The doctor’s “quality-of-life” justification for denying Michael treatment for COVID-19 was contradicted by a family video showing the joyful connection he had with his family. Disability advocacy organizations have filed complaints with the federal Office of Civil Rights. Decision-making was arbitrarily taken from Michael’s wife, while in other cases Do Not Resuscitate orders have been placed in patient files against their wishes.
Racial Disparities
Medical prejudice and neglect results in racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, cancer, and heart trouble. COVID-19 has killed Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) at a much higher rate than Whites. Assisted suicide legalization makes it more likely that Black patients will be “written off” as better off dead, like Black Texan quadriplegic Michael Hickson.
Depression
Assisted suicide laws lead to the denial of suicide prevention services to seriously ill and disabled people, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s guarantee of equal program access. Assisted suicide laws redefine depression and feeling like a burden as “rational,” rather than as evidence of impairment or need for intervention. Suicide contagion is real and assisted suicide laws send the wrong message that suicide is an answer to personal problems.
Disability
The end of life concerns reported in Oregon and elsewhere all have to do with negative reactions to disability: distress and shame over dependence on others, lost abilities, loss of dignity, feeling like a burden and incontinence. We don’t need to die to have dignity. We champion meaning found in mutual aid and interdependence.
Outside Influence is Unavoidable
In her New Year’s Eve 2019 ruling against a state constitutional right to die, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mary K. Ames summed up some of the stresses that might hurry the moment when people ingest the poison.
“In such a situation, there is a greater risk that temporary anger, depression, a misunderstanding of one’s prognosis, ignorance of alternatives, financial considerations, strain on family members or significant others, or improper persuasion may impact the decision.”
June 15 by Anita Cameron of ADAPT, Article from Not Dead Yet
“COVID-19 continues to rage through America, but not many of us outside the media and disability rights and justice groups are talking about an overlooked population – residents of nursing facilities and institutions for disabled people, who are dying of COVID-19.
To date, more than 51,000 residents and employees of nursing homes and long-term care facilities have died. That’s more than 40 percent of the total death toll in the United States. These are only the numbers they tell us.”…