Tuesday morning on Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts legislature will consider a bill to legalize the contentious medical practice of doctor-assisted suicide by way of prescription medication. Sponsored by Representative Louis L. Kafka (D-Stoughton), the measure aims to uphold and protect the “right to bodily self-determination at the end of life.”
Assisted suicide is a practice that stole the national spotlight in the 1990s when Dr. Jack Kevorkian began employing the method to aid some 40 terminally ill patients in escaping a life thereafter of pain and suffering. Aptly nicknamed “Dr. Death,” Kevorkian eventually crossed the fine line of assisted suicide into murder, lethally injecting a patient at the patient’s own behest, resulting in a 10–25 year prison sentence for second-degree murder, of which he served eight prior to his release.
Interestingly, Massachusetts has already tried to enact assisted suicide via ballot initiative in 2012, though it quickly lost momentum and was struck down by a slim margin of 51 percent against.
The Massachusetts Compassionate Care for the Terminally Ill Act aims to create and implement safeguards on behalf of the Commonwealth and proper healthcare providers that will guide them and “patient advocates who provide support to dying patients… assist capable terminally ill patients requesting aid in dying… protect vulnerable persons from abuse,” and “ensure that such process is entirely voluntary on the part of all participants, including the patient, his or her physicians, and any other health care provider or facility providing the patient services or care.”
Appearing before the Joint Committee on Public Health, Kafka hopes his bill will declare the rights of patients in regards to assisted suicide and prerequisites for eligibility – though the latter is nothing more than proof of residency in the Bay State, a minimum age of 18, a terminally ill diagnosis and having formerly been consulted with a physician or counselor.
Should the bill pass and one be deemed eligible, the patient must pen a written request witnessed by two individuals, one of whom is not related by blood and/or entitled to even the smallest iota of the patient’s subsequent estate, who can attest that the patient is competent, acting voluntarily and not being coerced to sign the request.
While the general sentiment of the bill resounds with melancholy and morbidity, it’s purpose is actually rather noble. Kafka hopes, in the most Kevorkian sense, that patients who rely on the act will “bring about a humane and dignified death.” It was Kevorkian, after all, who infamously observed that “dying is not a crime.”
To further digest the entire scale and scope of the legislation, you can view it below in PDF format. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest news regarding the bill. In the meantime, feel free to respectfully share your thoughts and opinions on the matter in the comments section below.
