Assisted suicide bills move forward

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Attempts to make it legal for doctors to help patients arrange to kill themselves have moved forward in Massachusetts.
Recent struggles against the coronavirus and racism are being raised as local Catholics oppose physician-assisted suicide.
The Joint Committee on Public Health voted that bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide ought to pass, said James Driscoll, executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the Church’s public policy arm.
The identical bills, each called “An Act relative to end of life options,” had been assigned to this committee, which held a public hearing on them last June, he said.
The committee had until the end of May this year to act. The first week of June it reported publicly that it had voted favorably on the bills, which it had amended, Mr. Driscoll said.  So, the bills went to the clerk’s office, which sent them to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. (Bills get new numbers when amended, so S 1208 is now S 2745 and H 1926 is now H 4782, he said.)
The bills could make several stops before reaching the full House and Senate for votes, Mr. Driscoll said, adding that “our goal” as opponents is to stop them where they are now. He said the typical July 31 deadline for the end of the legislative session, when bills that are not passed die, might be extended this year because of the coronavirus and racial injustice discussions in the legislature.
The Massachusetts Catholic Conference sent information about opposing the bills to the four (arch)dioceses in the state to disseminate, Mr. Driscoll said.
He suggested asking senators and representatives to respect the decision of Massachusetts voters, who in 2012 defeated a ballot question that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide.
Since then, bills to legalize it have been submitted every legislative session, but this is the first time such bills received a favorable recommendation, he said.
Among those speaking out against the bills is Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, pastor of Christ the King Parish in Worcester. He sent letters to all the senators and is still sending letters to the represenatives. He urged parishioners to contact their legislators too.
“For the past four months we’ve witnessed the heroics of healthcare professionals in doing whatever they could to preserve the lives of those with COVID-19 - such an enormous effort to save the lives of frail elders, those with pre-existing conditions and every other person,” said a Flocknote message from Msgr. Sullivan. “As lives were saved across the country, hospital personnel have cheered their success stories right to the front door. Isn’t it strange that now some legislators are advocating physician-assisted suicide for essentially the same population demographic?
“First and foremost, the Catholic Church teaches that life begins at conception and should end naturally,” the message continued. “That’s our most basic reason for resisting PAS. Life is God’s gift and is to be treasured. Every human person has an innate dignity. And this is why so many millions of us have also found the unjust taking of human life in our city streets in these same recent weeks so reprehensible,” the message said, in reference to racism.
Dr. Mark Rollo, a semi-retired family physician from St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fitchburg, also spoke about physician-assisted suicide in light of the coronavirus and racism.
Early fears of not having enough ventilators for virus patients showed how care could be rationed to exclude the elderly and handicapped first, he said. And, he said, these populations could be pressured to opt for physician-assisted suicide if it was legal and there was a shortage of equipment or medicine.
He told of an editorial cartoon which showed a person sitting in a wheelchair in front of a building. By the steps was a sign for help with suicide prevention. By the ramp was a sign for help to obtain suicide pills. The message, Dr. Rollo said, was, “If you are young, healthy, able-bodied and can climb these stairs, we want to save you.”
The same thinking can be applied to the racism recently exhibited and protested in the United States, which is a reminder that discrimination exists, he said.
Disproportionately, minorities and the poor rely on government insurance, such as Medicaid, or have no medical insurance, he said. As a doctor, he’s seen that some insurance companies will pay for certain treatments he prescribes, and some won’t. Private insurance companies try to cut costs to make a profit, but government insurance, always running a deficit, would be more apt to pay for helping a person commit suicide, because it is cheaper than some medical treatment, he said.
 He said he thinks this is one of the main points to tell legislators, to stop passage of these bills.
In supporting physician-assisted suicide, legislators are not looking after the public at large, Dr. Rollo said. Instead, he said, they are catering to white, wealthy people who can afford insurance that will pay for their treatment but want the option of killing themselves too. The legislators should be considering societal ramifications of the bills, protecting minorities and those who are poor, elderly or disabled, he said.
“Assisted suicide is not medical aid in dying,” Dr. Rollo said. He said “it’s medical aid in killing, because we already have medical aid in dying” - in palliative care and hospice, which are handled well in Massachusetts.
He said he and cardiologist Dr. Thomas Sullivan wrote a letter, opposing physician-assisted suicide, which more than 100 physicians signed, and sent it to legislators.
 
– For more information see www.macatholic.org, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference website.