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.