(Note: This segment was first published April 28, 2013).
This is the newspaper’s mini-bio for Mike Reynolds:
Michael Reynolds of Lewiston is a writer and Web designer for Ability Maine, a disability rights website funded by Resources Organizing for Social Change, a nonprofit based in Monroe. He is a long-time activist and was born with cerebral palsy.
To add to that – Mike has been a long-time friend and supporter of NDY. He’s a filmmaker who produced the memorable Million Dollar Bigot.
On Sunday, April 28, the Lewiston Sun Journal published on op-ed by Mike – summarizing some current attempts to legalize euthanasia and the historic fails of those attempts in New England in his essay titled “Bill allowing doctor-assisted suicide has troubling aspects.”:
More than a decade ago, the people of Maine soundly defeated a referendum regarding assisted suicide. Last year, the residents of Massachusetts also defeated legislation that would have legalized assisted suicide. Bills in Connecticut and Vermont were killed earlier in the year in those state legislatures.
Despite that overwhelming opposition to assisted suicide, Rep. Joseph Brooks, U-Winterport, has introduced LD 1065, “An act regarding patient care at the end of life” in the Maine Legislature, with a hearing scheduled for April 29.
The bill has many aspects that are troubling.
Unlike the assisted suicide law in Oregon, which has questionable safeguards in place — namely that two doctors need to agree with the terminal diagnosis — the proposed law by Rep. Brooks requires only “the opinion of one doctor,” and terminal diagnosis means only a limited life expectancy, saying nothing about whether that means six days, six months, or six years.
(Note – the Vermont bill has been resurrected and is ready to be debated and voted on in the House this week.)
Please read the rest of Mike Reynold’s essay here. (Note: This is the only segment that has been updated as of 2026. This link now directs to the article in the Wayback Machine.)