Op-ed: Death with dignity bill allowed to die, needless suffering will continue
Before the Massachusetts Legislature wrapped up its business on July 31, I'm glad it passed much-needed bills to deal with the climate crisis and to increase mental health services as a result of this challenging pandemic.
But legislative leaders also made passing a sports betting bill a priority, while not even bringing the death with dignity bill out of committee to a vote. This showed a callous disregard for the suffering of tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents who are either terminally ill now or will be in the months and years ahead, of cancer, heart disease or ALS.
The responsibility doesn't lie with the whole Legislature; nearly half of all representatives and senators were co-sponsors of the End of Life Options Act, and a solid majority would have voted to pass it if they'd had the chance.
But House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka chose to ignore the will of the people (77% of Massachusetts residents supported passing this bill, according to a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll released May 1). They didn't give the green light to the HealthCare Finance Committee (HCFC) co-chairs, Rep. John Lawn and Sen. Cindy Friedman, to vote on and pass the death with dignity bill, even after the Public Health Committee (PHC) did so in March. (The PHC also passed a very similar bill during the previous legislative session, in 2020.)
A majority of HCFC members were either co-sponsors of the bilI, or had met with and told some of their constituents that they would support and vote for it. The bill also had minimal cost to the state, unlike others that were passed. But leadership let it die in that committee.
The results of this inaction on legalizing medical aid in dying were immediate and tragic.
For instance, Dorchester resident Laura Johannes died Aug. 6 of pancreatic cancer, at age 57. Two days before she died, she recorded a video for the national organization Death with Dignity. She said she wished she had the peaceful, compassionate option of death with dignity, and could avoid the needless severe suffering she was going through.
For 10 years, the Legislature has denied Massachusetts residents the right to make their own choices at the end of their lives. Johannes’ message makes clear that people suffering with terminal illnesses want such options.
I spent the last five years as director of Massachusetts Death with Dignity, trying to make our state the 11th (Maine, Vermont and New Jersey among them) plus Washington, D.C., to legalize the option of medical aid in dying.
At age 75, I've just retired from that voluntary position to slow down, and focus more on family and other issues I care deeply about. The board of directors is seeking a new part-time executive director.
Many MetroWest legislators did all they could to help pass this bill, including Reps. Maria Robinson, Jack Lewis, David Linsky and Carmine Gentile. Please join us in thanking them, and urging them to highlight the issue this fall as they campaign for re-election; sign on as a co-sponsor for the new bill in January; and work for its passage as soon as possible in 2023.
Then contact family, friends and co-workers throughout the state, and urge them to do the same with their own legislators. Let's give all of us, and especially those with terminal illnesses, the peace of mind that comes from the legal option of death with dignity.
Northampton resident John Berkowitz recently retired as director of Massachusetts Death with Dignity, an advocacy group promoting end-of-life policy reform.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Berkowitz: Death with dignity bill allowed to die in ma legislature
