More than 100 doctors and health care professionals from around Massachusetts signed onto an open letter urging state lawmakers to sink proposed bills that would open the door to allowing doctors to prescribe lethal doses of chemicals for terminally ill patients…
“As physicians and healthcare professionals, we embrace a culture where ALL people receive appropriate medical care, regardless of economic state, ethnicity, age or disability,” the physicians wrote in an open letter organized by the Massachusetts Alliance Against Doctor-Prescribed Suicide. “We believe that the most vulnerable patients will suffer from legalization of lethal drugs by creation of a financial incentive for insurance companies and governments to save money by approving coverage of cheaper lethal drugs and denying lifesaving treatment, as has happened in states where assisted suicide is legal.”
In each of the last at least five legislative sessions, bills to authorize medical aid in dying have been sent to study by the Joint Committee on Public Health, effectively spelling the end of the issue for each session…
Massachusetts voters spoke directly to the issue in 2012 when they rejected a ballot question similar to the bills filed by Kafka and Brownsberger with 51 percent opposed and 49 percent in favor, a margin of 67,891 votes.
Read the full story at the Worcester Business Journal…