Should people suffering with excruciating pain in the last six months of their lives have the legal option to self-administer doctor-prescribed medicine for a more gentle passing? The fight for this right has been going on for more than a decade on Beacon Hill.

There is some encouraging news. Before the end of 2025, the Mass. Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing quickly approved a bill enabling a medically assisted path to a more peaceful death under clearly articulated guidelines. Identified as The End of Life Options Act (S.1486), it now makes its way to Senate Ways & Means, the final stop before going to the Senate floor. The House too must follow the same procedure so that, sooner rather than later, the bill can make it to the floor.

The Ways & Means Committee has often been a code name for a legislative graveyard, where bills go to die. This committee was as far as the bill got during the 2024 legislative session. That historic inaction mustn’t happen this time, but its success depends on regular folks, you and me, reaching out to pressure their state senators and representatives. Since this is an election year ensuring an early end to their work schedule, our legislators should complete action and pass the bill within the next few months.

The public has made clear it wants the option of a less tortured death.  Three quarters of the population or more favor it. (While the strongest institutional opposition comes from the Church and some disability advocates, according to Beacon Research, two thirds of Catholics and 71 percent of Protestants support this approach to end-of-life care.) The reasons are clear.

Stories abound about dying seniors, pummeled physically and emotionally, who have chosen to refuse food and drink until their body shuts down, essentially starving themselves to a gruesome death rather than having to endure months more of excruciating pain and little to no quality of life. Others with dire prognoses have secreted away pills to self-administer upon reaching the end stage, only to have deteriorated to the point when they are physically unable to follow through on their expressed intentions.

Since first introduced here, 12 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to pass just such humane measures. Oregon has had such a law for 28 years. Seven other states are actively working on proposals this year. Our state legislature has never even sent the matter to the floor for a vote. In the last session, one hundred of the state’s legislators co-sponsored it, and many others privately indicated support.

Those who do not favor having control over their end-of-life health decisions don’t have to exercise the option. For adults who rightly insist such compassionate choice is their right, there are clear-cut guidelines to prevent abuses. Governor Maura Healey has indicated she would support a bill with such guidelines.  Check out these guidelines I have detailed in a recent blog. For a patient to exercise that end-of-life care option would require approvals by multiple professionals, including medical doctors and mental health practitioners. The whole process has a carefully designed paper trail.

My own representative, Greg Schwartz, is a physician. From his personal interactions, he said he knows this issue is very important to a lot of people. He believes the multiple levels of signing off provide adequate protection, and, he says, he feels comfortable that it won’t be abused. While the fate of most bills rests with the leadership, his view as a doctor could bring added credibility to the debate.

This is about death with dignity. It’s about exercising the same choice about our end-stage medical treatment that we have depended upon throughout our adult lives. We should be able to ask a physician for a prescription to take ourselves when we can go no further. Nearly a quarter of Americans live in states where this road to death with dignity is available. Enlightened Massachusetts, usually a leader in such matters, should provide no less.

There’s a lot that we may not be able to change in today’s national political environment, but we do have the power to influence passing of this statewide measure to provide compassionate care at the end of life for dying patients. It’s little enough to ask.

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