Assisted suicide lobby to appeal Massachusetts court decision stating there is no right to assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide lobby will appeal the Massachusetts Superior Court decision from January 10 that decided there is no right to assisted suicide in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts court decision recognized the difficulty in accurate patient assessment to approve MAID, which is an irreversible decision. The court decision challenged the concept that MAID is a form of medical treatment and pointed out that even in Oregon the oversight of the law is questionable at best.

Finally, the Massachusetts court found that oversight and control of assisted suicide laws are lacking. The risk related to assisted suicide is great.

In its media release the assisted suicide lobby stated:

“We are disappointed with this ruling and we plan to appeal it,” said John Kappos, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which worked with the Boston-based law firm Morgan Lewis and Compassion & Choices to file the suit on behalf of Dr. Kligler and Dr. Steinbach.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) reported that the Massachusetts court decision provided an excellent explanation of why assisted suicide should be prohibited. Based on this cogent analysis, the Court of Appeal should uphold the lower court decision.

The Massachusetts legislature may be debating an assisted suicide bill in 2020. Since the Massachusetts court of appeal is considering the assisted suicide issue, therefore it is inappropriate for the Massachusetts legislature to debate the issue until the appeal is completed.