Massachusetts Bill Summary - Compassion and Choices (2024)

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Massachusetts Bill Summary - Compassion and Choices? ›

The Legislation Allows: A terminally ill, mentally capable adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live the option to request, obtain and ingest medication — should they choose — to die peacefully in their sleep if their suffering becomes unbearable.

Sometimes called "assisted suicide," "right to die," or "medical aid in dying" initiatives, these laws make it possible for terminally ill patients to use prescribed medication to end their lives peacefully rather than suffering a painful and protracted death.

Voters in 2012 rejected a ballot question by 1.5% that would have permitted physicians to prescribe the medication, and the Supreme Judicial Court last year ruled that aid in dying is not protected by the Massachusetts Constitution.

The End of Life Option Act allows an adult diagnosed with a terminal disease, who meets certain qualifications, to request the aid-in-dying drugs from their attending physician. The Act requires physicians to submit specified forms and information to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Medical aid in dying (MAID) is a practice in which a physician provides a competent adult with a terminal illness with a prescription for a lethal dose of a drug at the request of the patient, which the patient intends to use to end his or her life.

End of life care is for anyone who is likely to die in the next 12 months. Some people who need end of life care have: a terminal illness – an illness that cannot be cured and they are likely to die from. a health condition which they are expected to die from.

Meanwhile, the state's highest court ruled against physician-assisted suicide last year, saying there is no right to it found in the state constitution's Declaration of Rights. The court did not rule out legislative action legalizing physician-assisted suicide.

Patients must meet stringent eligibility requirements, including being an adult, state resident, mentally capable, able to self-administer and ingest the medications, and having a terminal diagnosis with a prognosis of six months or less to live. There are no exceptions.

About the Death with Dignity Act

On October 27, 1997, Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally ill individuals to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.

What is the end of life drug called? ›

Common anticipatory medicines include the following: Medicine for pain in palliative care – an appropriate opioid, for example, morphine, diamorphine, oxycodone or alfentanil. Medicine for breathlessness – midazolam or an opioid. Medicine for anxiety – midazolam.

It has been suggested that the bill may exclude Californians based on income and medical care coverage, with Medicare and other insurers not covering the cost of barbiturates to end life. Death With Dignity estimates the cost can reach $5,000 as of 2017.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ottolia said The End of Life Option Act, which took effect June 9, 2016, was unconstitutional because the Legislature passed it during a special session convened by Gov. Jerry Brown to address health care-related issues.

Passive euthanasia: intentionally letting a patient die by withholding artificial life support such as a ventilator or feeding tube. Some ethicists distinguish between withholding life support and withdrawing life support (the patient is on life support but then removed from it).

There are two very different major ethical issues surrounding MAID: first, how some believe that the act of ending a patient's life conflicts with the biomedical ethical principle of nonmaleficence, and second, that the MAID law that is in effect in California is unethical because it is too restrictive and is ...

The euthanasia solution is usually a barbiturate- the same class of drugs used for general anesthesia. At a much higher dose, this solution provides not only the same effects as general anesthesia (loss of consciousness, loss of pain sensation), but suppresses the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

The End of Life Choice Act sets out how care should be provided to people choosing to receive the service, while the Code upholds people's rights when accessing that care.

This law allows a terminally ill adults who are California residents to request a medication from his or her physician that will end his or her life. People who choose to end their lives this way, and who carefully follow the steps as outlined by the legislature, will not be considered to have committed suicide.

Once the person has been identified as approaching end of life (this timing will vary depending on the type of illness, but is generally between six and twelve months before death), any preferences or decisions agreed with that person and/or those caring for him/her, should be recorded and communicated, with the ...