Why Choice is an Illusion?

Monday, December 19, 2022

Major Assisted Suicide Win in Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

By Barbara Lyons
Patients' Rights Action Fund

We are thrilled to announce that a favorable decision was reached in Kligler v. Healy by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts which rejected the notion that there is a right to assisted suicide in the Massachusetts Constitution.  

Here is a key phrase from the decision:
Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life decisions, after careful consideration, we conclude that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights does not reach so far as to protect physician-assisted suicide.3 We conclude as well that the law of manslaughter may prohibit physician-assisted suicide, and does so, without offending constitutional protections.
Nineteen disability rights organizations filed a brief in opposition to this case.  If the decision had gone the other way, expectations were that similar cases would be filed in states that prohibit assisted suicide.