Dr. Larry S. Rankin: Support passage of End of Life Options Act

Glenn Carstens-Peters/StockSnap

Barbara Coombs Lee, left, chief sponsor for Oregon’s assisted suicide law, gets a hug on Nov. 4, 1997, from fundraiser Margaret Surguine in Portland after learning the measure to repeal the law was soundly defeated. Oregon was the first state to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe a life-ending drug to a terminally ill patient of sound mind. AP FILE

Published: 07-15-2024 5:17 PM

Regarding the recent letter “Tough cases make bad law on assisted suicide,” [Recorder, July 10], contrary to claims by the small percentage of Massachusetts residents who oppose medical aid in dying, it is legally and medically incorrect to conflate this end-of-life care option for mentally capable, terminally ill adults with incurable diseases to people who take their lives because of unresolved mental health crises. The core safeguards in the Massachusetts End of Life Options Act to protect vulnerable individuals, people with disabilities or poverty-stricken, from abuse and coercion are based on the time-tested practice of medical aid in dying authorized in Washington, D.C. and 10 states, starting nearly three decades ago in Oregon. There is no evidence of misuse of medical aid in dying in any jurisdiction where it is authorized. For example, a Journal of Medical Ethics study concluded: “Rates of assisted dying in Oregon … showed no evidence of heightened risk for the elderly, women, the uninsured … people with low educational status, the poor, the physically disabled or chronically ill, minors, people with psychiatric illnesses including depression, or racial or ethnic minorities, compared with background populations.”

Opponents’ attempts to conflate the evolving Canadian euthanasia law with U.S. medical aid-in-dying laws enacted over the last three decades strictly limited to mentally capable, terminally ill adults who must be able to self-ingest the medication is wrong and misleading to the public and lawmakers. Massachusetts End of Life Options Act is the most strict medical aid-in-dying legislation in the United States, requiring a licensed mental health specialist to confirm the patient’s mental capacity.

Finally, medical aid in dying does not replace hospice and palliative care; It complements it. For example, passing medical aid-in-dying laws has improved hospice and palliative care in other states, like California and Hawaii. Please join me in urging our Legislature to pass the Massachusetts End of Life Options Act this year.

Dr. Larry S. Rankin, retired cardiologist and internist

Florence