Massachusetts Considers Legalizing Assisted Suicide

The state Legislature is about to embark on a debate all but unimaginable a decade ago: whether terminally ill patients should be able to commit suicide.

Three months after Oregon voters approved an assisted suicide law that was promptly blocked, opponents remain steadfast in their belief that taking a life - assisted or not - is immoral and should not be sanctioned.

“Our teaching is on the dignity of a human person,” said Gerald D’Avolio of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. “This affronts it … it turns a physician into an assistant in a killing.”

Under a bill introduced in the Massachusetts House, a patient must consult with three doctors, including a psychiatrist, if necessary, before attempting suicide. Physicians must be satisfied the patient is “capable, is acting voluntarily and has made an informed decision” before issuing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs.

“We need to enter into a deep and long discussion in this society about how life ends,” said bill co-sponsor Rep. James Marzilli, a Democrat.

“I think it’s inevitable that everyone is going to have this discussion, every single state,” he said.

No date has been set for lawmakers to begin the debate.

In 1989, Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped put the issue on the nation’s front pages when he unveiled his assisted suicide machine.