The Massachusetts Joint Public Health Committee recently reported out of committee the controversial bill (S.2745) that would legalize assisted suicide. This puts bill S.2745 one step closer to a vote. Some residents have asked: Other states have passed it, why not us? It is important to note that, compared to the states that have

After at least five legislative sessions without advancing beyond the committee stage, bills that would open the door to doctors prescribing lethal doses for terminally ill patients got favorable reports from the Committee on Public Health… The bills (H 1926/S 1208) that would legalize medical aid in dying – sometimes referred to as doctor-assisted suicide

Second Thoughts Massachusetts issues the following statement in opposition to the favorable report given by the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health to Bill S.1208/H.1926, legislation that would legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. John Kelly “I’m amazed and disappointed that as a deadly virus is stalking and killing older, ill, and disabled people, and

  “It is unthinkable at the outset of our tenuous Covid reopening that the MA public health committee would devote time to regressive, discriminatory assisted suicide legislation, which is fatally flawed and ripe for abuse, coercion, and mistakes. When care is expensive and suicide is cheap, what message are we sending to our elders, the

One person dies of suicide every eleven minutes in our country. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans between 10 and 34 years of age. The fight against suicide is in many ways, the rallying cry of the next generation. While the broad consensus to fight suicide across society has been extolled

  An elderly or disabled person will not be billed extra or be blocked from receiving health care because of high costs in Oklahoma, after passage of anti-discrimination legislation. On Friday, Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, approved the “Nondiscrimination in Health Care Coverage” Act, which would prevent a state agency from using age, chronic illness,

Arguments in support of assisted suicide often focus on patient choice.  Proponents argue that no one has to commit assisted suicide if they do not want to, and its legalization only expands patient choice.  Unfortunately, the sad reality is that assisted suicide impacts everyone’s health care choices because it creates perverse incentives for profit driven

  In today’s episode, we discuss assisted suicide and how the COVID-19 pandemic is shedding new light on the way patients are treated. We speak with Matt Vallière the Executive Director of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund whose mission is to protect patients’ civil rights and oppose efforts to make suicide a legal medical treatment

Legalizing assisted suicide in a society with unequal access to affordable health care, let alone end of life care, creates an unintended and unspoken pressure on terminally ill patients, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities to not to be a burden that constrains freedom of choice rather than expanding it.  This is especially dangerous in

As the COVID-19 pandemic hurdles us to the breaking point of our medical system in various hot spots across the country, we are being forced to face our faults and our fears in the raw. We are at a critical point in history, and how we care for vulnerable patients will be judged by generations

Assisted suicide laws abandon vulnerable people and remove society’s care at a time when it’s needed most.  Legalizing assisted suicide perpetuates the idea that some lives are not worth living and where do you logically draw the line? But we need look no further than America to see how these laws abandon vulnerable patients because

  The letter “Aid-in-dying empowers patients to make decision,” April 11, argues the availability of assisted suicide is empowering; however, assisted suicide devalues the lives of individuals with disabilities and diminishes patient choice by creating perverse incentives for insurance companies to offer a cheap death over costly treatment. The author claimed data from Oregon show

In the current ageist climate, legalizing assisted suicide is downright dangerous for the elderly. What is urgently needed is a concerted effort to terminate elder abuse and to work towards a more inclusive, more caring and less ageist society. “…As the debate rages over when or how to resume public life, older adults like Reed

  Thank you so much for your overwhelming support! #GivingTuesdayNOW has been a wonderful day of unity and generosity. We remain committed to patients and families NOW and always! Matt Vallière, Executive Director  

  Double your Gift today!  Join us today and Give $5! Click here to see how Patients Right Action Fund is calling for the protection of all patients.  For the price of a latte you can support the fight to protect all patients during this pandemic and into the future! Click here to donate today!

  Join the Patients Rights Action Fund Today for #GivingTuesdayNow Give $5 today on 5/5 and your gift will be matched! At a time when we are all experiencing the pandemic, generosity is what brings us all together and will get us through it. Generosity gives everyone the power to make a positive change in

Today is #GivingTuesdayNow, a new global day of giving that unites us all through generosity. Today, we have the power to heal communities in good times and bad. A global threat like COVID-19 touches every person on the planet, and it presents an opportunity to come together as a global community. Give $5 and your

  …Roughly one in four adults in the U.S. has a disability, and an estimated 60% of Americans have at least one chronic health condition that could make the symptoms of COVID-19 more severe or deadly. Even in normal times, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses confront biases in medical care, face waiting lists to