Dear Friend of the Family, 

Hundreds showed up in person and virtually to the hearing on the Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) bill yesterday, Friday, October 20^th. The Joint Committee on Public Health heard testimony on HB2246/SB1331, “An Act relative to end of life options” from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Massachusetts Family Institute opposes physician-assisted suicide because it invites abuse and creates a slippery slope toward devaluing life. And devaluing life for some means devaluing life for all. Physician-assisted suicide is never necessary and disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in society, including the elderly, the disabled, and the mentally ill.

Regardless of whether you testified yesterday, your legislators need to hear from you now! Please visit our user-friendly Take Action page to send an email telling them you oppose HB2246/SB1331.

Our Director of Community Alliances Michael King delivered a powerful personal testimony for MFI in opposition to PAS. He shared about the passing of his father a few years ago from cancer.

“My father was given 6 months to live after being diagnosed with cancer. He ended up living over 12 more years, planting his many gardens, and meeting all of his grandchildren. He literally died with a smile on his face, in his home during hospice care.”

Michael’s testimony that his father lived eleven and a half years beyond what doctors predicted shattered the statements of those supporting PAS who regurgitated the myth that doctors can accurately predict when an illness will be terminal. Terminal illness lifespan forecasts have an error rate of 30%. That’s worse than a weather forecast!

Supporters of PAS also attempted to perpetuate the myth that it is needed to end suffering and untreatable pain. But this too is untrue, as only 33% of patients in Oregon where PAS is legal chose assistance in dying for relief from suffering.

Read more about our reasons for opposing physician-assisted suicide by reading our legislative brief here.

Voters rejected physician assisted suicide in 2012, but the culture-of-death legislators continue to push the death agenda with HB2246/SB1331. The State House News Service reported in 2015 that Governor Baker sought to support the will of the voters indicating a likely veto.

Now, Governor Healy has stated that she supports PAS, and would sign the legislation if it landed on her desk.

Please take 30 seconds to tell your legislator to oppose PAS. Click here to visit our action page to send them an email or even to make a phone call.

Physician-assisted suicide has been defeated in Massachusetts for over a decade. We can defeat it again, but we need your help! Take action today.

Yours in the fight for life,

Bill Gillmeister, Legislative and Education Consultant

P.S. Hundreds showed up in person and virtually to the hearing on the Physician Assisted Suicide bill yesterday, Friday, October 20^th. The legislation, HB2246/SB1331, invites abuse of some of our most vulnerable by profit-seeking health insurance companies and cost-cutting government bureaucrats to recommend an inexpensive prescription for death rather than to provide real care that can, in many cases, lead to healing. Your legislators need to hear from you now. Please take a few moments to send them an email telling them to oppose HB2246/SB1331.

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