Right-to-die bill gets emotional airing

Oct. 01--BOSTON -- Michael Martinelli struggles with a degenerative neuromuscular disorder that confines him to a wheelchair and eventually will leave him incapacitated.

"If one day I become terminally ill and I'm facing what could be a drawn-out, painful death, I will want the option of medical aid in dying," Martinelli, of Lexington, told a legislative committee Tuesday. "I don't know if I'll need to use it, but I want the peace of mind knowing that I can."

Martinelli would have the choice under a proposal filed by Rep. Louis Kafka, D-Stoughton, and Sen. Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover, putting Massachusetts in line with Vermont, Oregon and Washington in allowing assisted suicide for those with terminal illness.

"This is about giving folks control over how they die. We're talking about people with diagnoses of six months or less to live," L'Italien told the panel.

"It's about whether they have to right to decide whether or not to end their pain and suffering," she added. "This is about choice."

Opponents to assisted suicide, who include medical and religious groups and advocates for those with disabilities, say misdiagnoses are common. They packed the committee hearing Tuesday and called on lawmakers to reject the proposal.

Terminally ill patients suffer from depression, they note, and may irrationally decide to end their lives.

Others argue that assisted suicide only truly benefits those who can afford it.

"Studies show that it is white, wealthy and insured who favor assisted suicide," Dr. Mark Rollo, a Fitchburg physician and opponent of the proposal, told the panel. "However, it is the poor people of color and people with disabilities who will be subtly or not-so-subtly steered toward suicide."

Legal assisted suicide, he said, "becomes a cheap medical procedure upon which cash-strapped governments and profit-minded insurance companies will increasingly rely."

"Massachusetts has a long and proud tradition of protecting the weak and vulnerable," he added. "We should not be steering vulnerable people toward suicide."

National debate revitalized

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling 20 years ago left the issue of allowing physician assisted suicide largely to states.

Since then 34 states have banned the practice, either at the ballot box or by legislative act.

But measures to legalize it have surfaced in at least a dozen states in recent years, including in California, Connecticut and Maryland.

Courts in Montana and New Mexico have ruled that physicians may prescribe lethal drugs to the terminally ill.

The debate nationally was rekindled following news accounts of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old California woman with brain cancer who moved to Oregon to end her life under the state's "death with dignity" law.

Maynard, who posted social media vignettes explaining her decision, became a prominent spokeswoman for the "death with dignity" movement, replacing the controversial pathologist Jack Kevorkian. Kevorkian, known as "Dr. Death," assisted in more than 130 suicides before dying from kidney problems and liver cancer in 2011.

Supporters of physician assisted suicide also packed Tuesday's committee hearing. They say the legislation, modeled after Oregon's law, has numerous safeguards including a prohibition to keep doctors from prescribing lethal drugs to those with depression or impaired judgment.

The bill would require patients to make two verbal requests for a doctor's intervention at least 15 days apart, as well as a written request signed by two witnesses. A physician would need to certify that the patient seeking access to lethal medicine is suffering from an incurable, irreversible condition.

The measure follows a failed ballot question five years ago that would have allowed the terminally ill to end their lives with medication prescribed by physicians.

The referendum was narrowly defeated, with 51 percent voting against it.

Right-to-die advocates were heavily outspent at the last minute by a coalition of religious leaders, anti-abortion activists and conservatives who poured more than $2.6 million into an aggressive campaign. By comparison, advocates spent about $700,000 on TV ads.

Poll: Majority favors right

Methods of physician-assisted suicide vary by state but typically involve prescriptions. Doctors are required to notify patients of alternatives, such as hospice care, and wait at least 48 hours after receiving a patient's written request.

In Washington, 248 people requested prescriptions for lethal medications in 2016, and 240 used them, according to the state's Department of Health.

In Oregon, 204 people obtained prescriptions, and 133 used them in 2016.

To date, at least 49 people in Vermont have requested lethal medications under its 2013 law.

A 2016 Gallup poll found that 69 percent of the country believes doctors should be allowed to end a patient's life by painless means. At least 51 percent say they would consider ending their lives if faced with a terminal illness.

Renee Meshel, a member of the nonprofit group Compassion and Choices, told the panel Tuesday about watching her mother die a slow, painful death from lung cancer.

"She asked me to help end her pain every day," Meshel recalled. "I wanted her to have the same dignity in death that she had achieved in life."

Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group's newspapers and websites. Email him at [email protected]

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