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Letter in the Boston Globe by Ellen Leigh

Activists within the disability rights community have justifiable fears

June 28, 2023

Jeff Jacoby’s column “For assistance in dying, please press 1” warns against the legalization of assisted suicide, especially highlighting its significant risks. As a disabled person, I share these concerns deeply.

Activists within the disability rights community fear that legalized assisted suicide could lead to coercion. Families might see it as a way to avoid caregiving; insurers might prefer it over costly treatments; and health care professionals, influenced by biases about quality of life, could steer patients toward this irreversible option.

Despite claims of compassion, legalizing assisted suicide risks perpetuating systemic ableism and potential abuse. Instead of offering death as a solution, we should prioritize bolstering support systems and health care for disabled individuals.

Comprehensive support services are crucial but often neglected. We already lack equitable and robust disability support systems, and the resulting problems lead to the underlying issues that push individuals toward considering assisted suicide.

Massachusetts must heed these concerns. Legalization of assisted suicide threatens the fundamental rights of disabled individuals to live with the respect and supports we deserve.

Ellen Leigh, Arlington

The writer is a member of Second Thoughts MA: Disability Rights Advocates Against Assisted Suicide.

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Actions Events MA News News

Oppose Court Ordered Suicide, Join Rally Oct. 13

Join us for a rally to tell the MA Supreme Court that court-ordered assisted suicide is WRONG for Massachusetts!

Please join Second Thoughts MA and Not Dead Yet for a rally to show the MA State Supreme Court that the issue of assisted suicide should be decided in the legislature, not by a handful of elite judges! Here’s what you need to know about this issue: 

  • The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is currently deliberating Kligler v Healey, a case concerning whether assisted suicide is a state constitutional right. 
  • If the plaintiffs (Kligler) win, assisted suicide will be legal in MA, bypassing the legislature and 20 years of effective advocacy by disability rights advocates.
  • Court ordered assisted suicide in Canada is killing disabled people. In US states where assisted suicide is legal, people with anorexia, diabetes, and depression are dying unnecessary deaths.

When: Thursday, October 13th from 11:30AM-1:00PM EST. 

Where: In front of the John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston, MA. Adjacent to 1 Ashburton Place, around the corner from the Statehouse (see map below).

What: A peaceful rally — holding signs, listening to speakers, and handing out pamphlets. PLEASE WEAR A MASK IF YOU ARE ABLE TO DO SO.

Please RSVP here to let us know if you’re coming. Bring as many people with you as you can.

Please be sure to share these event details in trusted networks only. 

Got questions or access needs? Please email jgood@notdeadyet.org. See you in the streets!

Map of Pemberton Square - John Adams Courthouse is at the intersection of Ashburton Place and Somerset Street, within the Pemberton Square Complex.
The John Adams Courthouse is at the intersection of Ashburton Place and Somerset Street, within the Pemberton Square Complex.

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Actions Events News

Webinar: The Deadly Ableism of Assisted Suicide and Its Impacts on Marginalized Communities

Please join a zoom webinar on the dangers of assisted suicide, and the specific problems with Massachusetts Bill S.1384.

Saturday July 16, 2pm-3:30pm.

Register for the Assisted Suicide Webinar

Hear from members of Second Thoughts MA: Disability Rights Advocates against Assisted Suicide, and from the staff of Not Dead Yet, the national disability rights group long opposed to assisted suicide as a form of deadly discrimination against disabled people.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Full width cartoon, a pen and ink drawing of a power wheelchair user with shoulder length hair sitting on a sidewalk with their chair facing a ramp marked by an access symbol along the side of a building. The ramp leads to an open side doorway with an overhead sign "Assisted Suicide." Their head is turned left to look at the front of the building, where a long flight of steps juts out into the sidewalk. The door is closed at the top of the steps, and there is an overhead sign "Suicide Prevention Program." TEXT: Saturday, July 16, from 2 PM to 3:30 PM on Zoom You Will Learn: • The specifics of the current Massachusetts assisted suicide bill, S.1384 • Why assisted suicide is dangerous for disabled and BIPOC communities • Why buzzwords assisted suicide supporters use, like "choice" and "dignity," are not honest terms • How safeguards fail to protect patients • Solutions to patient suffering • How to take action! Presented by Second Thoughts MA and Not Dead Yet


You Will Learn:
• The specifics of the current Massachusetts assisted suicide bill, S.1384
• Why assisted suicide is dangerous for disabled and BIPOC communities
• Why buzzwords assisted suicide supporters use, like “choice” and “dignity,” are not honest terms
• How safeguards fail to protect patients
• Solutions to patient suffering
• How to take action!
Presented by Second Thoughts MA and Not Dead Yet

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Actions News

Action Needed! Oppose Bills S 1384 / H 2381

June 6, 2022

Oppose S.1384/H.2381, which would legalize assisted suicide and risk the lives of disabled people. Use this FORM to Protect Disabled Lives to send the message to the MA Joint Committee on Health Care Financing that these bills must not pass! To help us alert more people to this issue and encourage them to take action, please use our Social Media Action Guide (docx). 

From John B. Kelly, Director of Second Thoughts, MA

Hello disability rights advocates and allies!

I wish I could write each of you individually, to encourage you to send the linked letter to the Massachusetts legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, to urge the committee to REJECT assisted suicide bills S.1384/H.2381 as a threat to the lives of disabled people, including people disabled by their serious illness.

Here is the link which will enable you to send the letter to every committee member. At the bottom of the letter, you can make your own personal message.

And attached is an Action Toolkit (docx) to using social media, complete with preprinted messages, to get the point across the assisted suicide is too dangerous for disabled people! Letter and Action Guide developed by newly hired Assistant Director/Policy Analyst Jules Good (they/them).

Thanks so much!

John

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Actions

MA Legislators Shouldn’t Take the “Bait and Switch” on Assisted Suicide

Download this new information from the Patients Rights Action Fund (No Suicide MA.pdf) to use when talking to legislators and constituents.

Assisted suicide proponents in Massachusetts are using bait to convince legislators to pass S.1384/H. 2381 to legalize assisted suicide by claiming there are sufficient “safeguards” to protect patients from coercion and abuse. But, once the bait is taken and the law is passed, proponents switch to stripping away the “safeguards” just a few years later.

  • A challenge filed in federal court in California would eliminate the requirement that the lethal drugs be self-administered which would result in euthanasia. With lethal injection available in the home, vulnerable people would be at even greater risk of being killed with-out their consent.
  • Proponents successfully removed by court settlement the requirement in Oregon that only residents of the state be eligible for lethal drugs by claiming it is unconstitutional. Now, they are essentially asking Massachusetts legislators to support a bill with an unconstitu-tional residency requirement and are urging other legal states to remove their residency requirements.
  • In Colorado, at least two patients in their early 30s with anorexia nervosa received lethal assisted suicide drugs. In Oregon, at least one patient with anorexia nervosa received the drugs. This is a broad expansion into mental illness, even though neither state through their elected officials or by public vote anticipated that the assisted suicide laws they passed would allow such expansion.
  • The Massachusetts bills require a 15-day waiting period as did bills from other legal states. Since enacting assisted suicide laws, Oregon and California have drastically reduced their waiting periods to mere hours and Hawaii is following suit. The “safeguard” of a legitimate waiting period to allow patients to fully comprehend the enormity of the decision to end their lives is now claimed to be a “barrier”.
  • Physicians are often wrong in their prognoses that patients have only six months to live. In New Mexico, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants are allowed to prescribe lethal drugs, even though Medicare prohibits them from qualifying patients for hospice which is also based on a six-month prognosis. Washington and Hawaii are two legal states now pro-posing to allow these less-qualified medical professionals to have prescription authority.
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Actions

Action Needed on S 1384!

Friday, March 25, 2022

The assisted suicide bill, S.1384 (An Act relative to end of life options), moved to the Health Care Financing Committee yesterday.   The clock now starts ticking with the committee having 30 days to process the bill.   However, as we know, the deadline can be extended.   If there is no extension and no action by the committee, the bill is dead in 30 days.

Please contact Health Care Financing Committee members to urge them to vote against the bill.   We are working on individual meetings with the Chairs and members. 

Committee members are found here:   https://malegislature.gov/Committees/Detail/J24

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Actions Information

Oppose MA Bills

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.