It is expected that the legalization of Suicide and Euthanasia will once again be the priority of the Right to Die movement during the 1999 Massachusetts Legislative Session. What was once an assault on innocent unborn life, has expanded as euthanasia advocates seek to undermine the legal protection of the most vulnerable in our society? In 1995 there began a new chapter in the pro-life movement in Massachusetts. “An Act to Allow Death With Dignity” was filed in the House of Representatives. This legislation was the beginning of a calculated effort by the Hemlock Society and other active pro-euthanasia groups, to plant the seed of legalized killing in Massachusetts.
Its sole purpose was to give doctors the “right” to assist their patients in killing themselves. In order to combat this attempt to legalize euthanasia in Massachusetts, MCFL’s Legislative Department formed “The Ad-Hoc Coalition to Defeat Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.” This broad based coalition of doctors, lawyers, nurses, pro-life and pro-family citizens, played a key role in the defeat of that bill in 1995. 1997 brought another, re-crafted, physician-assisted suicide bill. H-1543 was entitled “An Act Regulating Physician-Aid-In Dying”, its sole purpose, like its predecessor, was to provide physicians the legal protection to prescribe death as a “solution” to their patient’s suffering. The Ad-Hoc Coalition was once again activated. The Coalition met for months at the Schrafft Center, designing and distributing thousands of postcards, developing talking points, participating in debates, but most importantly contacting over 50 experts from the fields of Law, Medicine, Psychiatry, Hospice Care, and the Disabled Community, who came to the State House to testify against H-1543 at a public hearing before the Joint Committee on Judiciary.
Again, the Ad-Hoc Coalition was instrumental in preventing the proposed “license to kill” from reaching the House floor. The culture of death seeped further in to the homes of the American people on November 22, 1998, when Dr. Jack Kevorkian killed a 52-year-old man by lethal injection and “60 Minutes” broadcast the macabre videotape to the Nation. Through his gaulish stunts, Kevorkian continually attempts to desensitize the public to killing. The American Medial Association (AMA) termed Kervorkian’s act “an outrageous violation of medicine’s code of ethics.” The AMA has also stated that Physician Assisted Suicide is “contrary to public policy, medical tradition, and the most fundamental measures of human value and worth.” For more than twenty-five years MCFL has fought to defend the right to life for the unborn. Now the same vigilance we have extended to the unborn must be expanded to include the elderly, the terminally ill and the handicapped.
MCFL will continue teaching our elected officials that life and death are acts determined only by God- not the state legislature.