Conrad's law to prevent suicide coercion in Massachusetts.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Conrad Roy

Amy Sokolow, reported for The Boston Herald that Conrad's Law will once again be debated in the Massachusetts legislature. 

The bill is named for Conrad Roy who died in July 2014 after his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, pressured him through text messages and phone calls to carry out suicide. Almost seven years after his death, legislators have refiled legislation to prosecute coerced suicide in Massachusetts, bringing the state in line with almost all the others in the U.S.

Sokolow quotes Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, who filed the legislation as stating:

“The fact that 42 other states have something like this on the books and we’re only one of eight states that (doesn’t) speaks volumes about why we do need something like this,”

Roland St. Denis, the husband of Conrad's mother, told the media

...having struggled with mental illness himself. He has worked with Medwed, Higgins and Finegold to shape this bill and shepherd it through the legislative process.

The lack of a coercion bill made Carter’s court case drag out longer than necessary, and “put an enormous amount of strain on Lynn, her daughters, (and) her son’s father’s family,”

Sokolow reported that Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and was released from prison last year.

More articles on this topic:

• Massachusetts high court upholds manslaughter conviction for woman who assisted the suicide of her boyfriend (Link).