Physician-assisted suicide hearing held

By Sandra Kucharski

 Special to The Catholic Free Press

A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Massachusetts would allow homicide, a Massachusetts legislator said this week.

Rep. Denise Provost was among many people testifying at a public hearing about two bills that are the same – HB 1926 and SB 1208 – called the “End-of-Life Options Act.” The Joint Committee on Public Health held the hearing Tuesday in Gardner Auditorium in the State House in Boston.

“The bill should be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary because it alters the law to allow homicide,” Rep. Provost said.

The proposed legislation would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live, so the patients could end their lives “on their own terms,” according to Rep. Louis Kafka, sponsor of the legislation. 

Currently, assisted suicide, including physician-assisted suicide, is a common law crime in Massachusetts. 

For almost eight hours Tuesday, panel after panel presented testimonies to the committee in a crowded auditorium. It was easy to identify where individuals stood on the issue, since each side wore stickers declaring their position. Although more people in favor of the bill came to the hearing, more people who opposed the bill testified. 

“Our presence and our arguments get better and better, and we get more and more people” over the years, Dr. Mark J. Rollo told The Catholic Free Press Wednesday. “We’ve gotten more and more out-of-state people.” A family physician from Fitchburg and a member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish there, he has been speaking out against physician assisted suicide.

The primary issue for proponents centered on patient autonomy. Many presented stories of loved ones who experienced inordinate suffering in the last weeks of their lives and wished they had access to “medical aid-in-dying,” as physician-assisted suicide is sometimes called.

Representing Compassion & Choices, an offshoot of the former Hemlock Society, nationally syndicated talk show host Diane Rheame spoke of how her 83-year-old husband with severe Parkinson’s disease followed his Maryland doctor’s directions to “stop eating, stop drinking, stop taking medication,” and died a “painful, elongated death” after 10 days, because physician-assisted suicide was not available to him. 

Opponents of the bill had more varied reasons why the legislation was not good for Massachusetts residents. A primary concern was that profit-driven health insurance programs could cut costs by denying payment for treatment that patients need and want, while approving payment for less costly assisted suicide drugs. Stephanie Packer, a young mother of four who was diagnosed with diffuse scleroderma, said that is what happened to her. She testified that within one week after California passed its assisted suicide law, her insurance company notified her that they would no longer cover her pain medication, oxygen and other therapy, but she qualified for suicide pills for a co-payment of $1.20. Similar cases have been reported in Oregon and Washington, states with a longer history of legalized assisted suicide. 

Dr. Brian Callister, past-president of the Nevada Medical Association, shared his experience of dealing with insurance companies. As he appealed a denial for payment of standard medical care for a patient, the insurance agent asked him if he had talked to his patient about assisted suicide. When he expressed his incredulity to his colleagues, he was surprised they did not share his alarm. They were already used to insurance companies doing that.

Others testifying spoke of the sacredness of life, the inaccuracy of doctors’ predictions of life expectancy, the lack of enforcement mechanisms within the bill, the potential for elder abuse and the role change of physician from compassionate healer to state sanctioned killer. 

To comment on HB 1926 and SB 1208 one can still call the Joint Committee on Public Health Chairspersons: Sen. Joanne Commerford at 617-722-1532 and Rep. John Mahoney at 617-722-2130. Asking that the bills remain in committee would essentially kill the bills.