Joint Committee on Public Health Public Hearing: End of Life Options – Submitted by Lindsay Baran
October 1, 2021
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Lindsay Baran, and I work as the Policy Director for the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), a national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. We stand with many other national and Massachusetts-based disability rights organizations in opposing An Act relative to end of life options (H. 2381 and S. 1384).
The disability rights community has long believed physician assisted suicide laws pose grave risks to disabled people. For people experiencing terminal illness, disability almost always accompanies that process, and the resulting functional losses become pivotal in the decision-making process. Disability is an inextricable piece of this conversation.
There’s a whole list of reasons why we oppose assisted suicide. What I’d like to briefly address today is the significant risk of abuse disabled folks face when assisted suicide is legal. Disabled people and older adults are at much higher risk of abuse, coercion, and exploitation. All these risks are heightened in the face of assisted suicide being legalized, and the safeguards people claim exist are truly insufficient when it comes to protecting people who are already vulnerable.
While proponents of legalizing assisted suicide claim safeguards will prevent abuse from occurring, the truth is these safeguards are incredibly ineffective. When coupled with problematic monitoring and a lack of meaningful oversight and enforcement mechanisms, they may as well be nonexistent. Proponents will tell you abuse of these laws are rare, but the truth of the matter is, this system was not set up to find them.
In Oregon, for instance, when concerns about abuses were raised, Dr. Katrina Hedberg of their Department of Human Services said: “We are not given the resources to investigate.” And not only that – she added “not only do we not have the resources to do it, but we do not have any legal authority to insert ourselves.”[1]
Abuse of disabled people and older adults was on the rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has increased even more since. If assisted suicide becomes legal, an heir, an abusive caregiver, anyone can steer someone toward assisted suicide. They can serve as one of the witnesses to the request. They can pick up the lethal dose. They can administer the drug. Who would know? No witnesses are required at the death, and with no resources or authority to investigate concerns – and therefore, no real safeguards – there are no real protections in place.
Assisted suicide is often hailed as strengthening autonomy and increasing people’s choices. That is a beautiful ideal. But when people facing terminal diagnoses face emotional or financial pressures from family or caregivers – or worse – that does not reflect the unfortunate reality.
I urge you to listen to our concerns and the concerns of your own disabled constituents. Where assisted suicide is legal, there is no doubt that some people’s lives will be ended by coercion and abuse. We’ve seen it happen. It will happen again. And until we can be sure that it won’t, assisted suicide laws are dangerous for disabled people, and they’re bad for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
[1] https://dredf.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Oregon-DHS.pdf