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Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
45 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Mass.
late state budget again among the last in nation
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Universal Basic Income may someday come to
Massachusetts but if a long-shot bill on Beacon Hill is any
indication, we’ll be doing it wrong.
UBI is a model to provide every citizen or
resident a stable monthly stipend with which to supplement
their income, regardless of their work status or any other
factor.
Democratic presidential contender Andrew
Yang calls his UBI a “Freedom Dividend,” which “Would enable
all Americans to pay their bills, educate themselves, start
businesses, be more creative, stay healthy, relocate for
work, spend time with their children, take care of loved
ones, and have a real stake in the future,” according to his
website....
But the bill hatched on Beacon Hill is
different. It would test UBI on 100 residents in each of
three cities or towns. Everyone chosen for the trial program
would receive $1,000 a month for three years and agree to
participate in a study.
The bill is co-sponsored by state Sen. James
B. Eldridge (D-Acton) and Rep. Tami L. Gouveia (D-Acton),
and a quick reading of the text gives a pretty good
indication of the impetus behind it.
House Bill 1632 would require that a report
would be filed after one year to, among other things,
consider “How universal basic income could be used to
address historic and contemporary inequalities, including,
but not limited to, institutional racism.”
In other words, a social justice program
using the taxpayer’s money.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Mass mishandling of UBI inevitable
Acting Gov. Karyn Polito on Thursday evening
signed the temporary state budget for the fiscal year that
starts Monday, preventing a state government shutdown and
giving budget negotiators some breathing room as their
deadline looms.
With Gov. Charlie Baker across the pond in
London to meet with American and British diplomats, and to
take in a Red Sox-Yankees game, Polito signed the interim
budget within hours of lawmakers getting it to her desk.
The $5 billion interim budget Baker filed
last week will keep state services running into July without
disruption, while six lawmakers continue to hash out a
compromise budget for the full fiscal year.
Forty-six states start a new fiscal year on
Monday and Massachusetts, Ohio and Oregon are the only three
where lawmakers have not finalized the budget, according to
the National Association of State Budget Officers.
In 2018, Massachusetts was the last state to
put a final budget in place. Baker signed it into law on
July 26, 2018.
This year, the governor kicked off the
annual budget deliberations when he filed his spending bill
in January. The House passed its budget in April, the Senate
approved its plan in May and a six-member conference
committee on June 5 formally began its negotiations.
State House News Service
Friday, June 28, 2019
Polito signs interim budget for fiscal 2020
When Gov. Charlie Baker returns Sunday from
a multi-day trip to London, there won't be a budget on his
desk for the fiscal year that begins Monday. Lawmakers face
no consequences for once again running late [ninth year in a
row] with their annual budget duties, but MBTA riders,
except those who only use buses, are not getting off the
hook so easily....
Negotiators won't say what's holding up
talks or why the budget will be late again. The House and
Senate may try to agree on a fiscal 2020 budget before
Thursday's Fourth of July holiday, although a $5 billion
interim budget passed this week and signed by Baker buys the
six-member conference committee more time to settle
differences....
Legislative leaders have not scheduled a
formal session to take up the budget compromise because they
don't know when it will arrive so most lawmakers, like
everyone else with a stake in the budget, are waiting for
white smoke from the conference committee led by Sen.
Michael Rodrigues of Westport and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of
Boston.
State House News Service
Friday, June 28, 2019
Advances - Week of June 30, 2019
Massachusetts lawmakers are once again
debating the ethical questions around medical aid in dying,
and advocates turned out in droves Tuesday to make their
voices heard with emotional testimony from both sides of
what's become a perennial public policy issue....
Seven years after the idea was narrowly
defeated during a statewide vote, [Rep. Louis Kafka,
D-Sharon] has again filed legislation to legalize medical
aid in dying -- refered to by some as medically assisted
suicide or by others as death with dignity. The Joint
Committee on Public Health on Tuesday held a public hearing
on the legislation, which Kafka said has been updated to
address concerns he heard in past years.
State House News Service
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Aid in dying bill framed as question of choice
Voters defeated a similar measure on the
2012 ballot by a very slim 51 percent to 49 percent margin
with 1,466,866 voting for the measure and 1,534,757 against.
There were also 182,573 blank ballots of people who took a
ballot but did not vote on this question.
“I first filed this bill on behalf of a
constituent who was dying of stomach cancer,” said Rep. Lou
Kafka (D-Sharon). “Having worked on this issue for over a
decade, I have only become more passionate that this should
be an option at the end of life. We can’t sit in judgment of
those in such personal pain. Everyone must be allowed to
make their own choice based on their own beliefs.” ...
Citizens for Limited Taxation’s (CLT)
Executive Director Chip Ford submitted, on his own
behalf, written posthumous testimony from his partner former
CLT chief Barbara Anderson who passed away in April
2016. Anderson wrote of assisted suicide in a March 2016
column, two weeks before she died following a struggle with
leukemia.
“When I get angry, it’s when my own rights
are attacked,” wrote Anderson. “… I want the right to choose
assisted suicide should I be in a ‘ready to die’ mode. But
no, despite my having left the Catholic Church 55 years ago,
it still had the power to fight a ballot question that would
give me personal autonomy over its religious doctrine. My
own emotions don’t usually run deep, my being a rational,
logical person and all, but I admit to hating the voters who
said no to the recent ‘death with dignity’ ballot question.
[I] hope they live long enough to regret it.”
Beacon Hill Roll Call
Week of June 24-28, 2019
By Bob Katzen
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Another week
has gone by and at the State House little has changed
with the upcoming budget in the House/Senate conference
committee. The new fiscal year 2020 begins on
Monday without a budget again, as usual in
Massachusetts. Before Gov. Baker jetted off to
Jolly Old England on Tuesday he submitted a one-month
"temporary" budget to carry the state through the
inevitable delay. In its Advances for the coming
week the State House News Service reported:
Despite Democratic leaders being late for the
ninth straight year, not even Republicans are
bothered by the delay. The new fiscal year will
start Monday with government operating on a
temporary, $5 billion budget signed by Lt. Gov.
Karyn Polito Thursday night with not much fuss
from anyone.
State House
News Service also noted:
Forty-six states start a new fiscal year on
Monday and Massachusetts, Ohio and Oregon are
the only three where lawmakers have not
finalized the budget, according to the National
Association of State Budget Officers.
In 2018, Massachusetts was the last state to put
a final budget in place. Baker signed it into
law on July 26, 2018.
"The Best
Legislature Money Can Buy" has established a new
tradition in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Despite being an alleged "full-time" legislature, unlike
most if not all other states Bay State legislators are
incapable of doing the one necessary job for which the
Legislature is solely responsible: Providing an
operating budget on time.
Instead,
legislators squander their taxpayer-funded
overly-generous salaries on buckets of craziness like
"Universal Basic Income" ––
a proposal "to provide every citizen or resident a
stable monthly stipend with which to supplement their
income, regardless of their work status or any other
factor."
"Citizen or
resident"?
"Regardless of
their work status or other factor"?
Do I need to
ask who would bear the burden for paying this monthly
$1,000 "stipend" to over 6.5 million Massachusetts
residents (over $6.5 billion) every year?
While reading
last week's State House News Service's Advances for what
was coming up at the State House this past week I caught
notice of a hearing scheduled for Tuesday before the
Joint Committee on Public Health on an issue close to my
heart — and even more so
that of Barbara Anderson: Another opportunity for
adopting a "death with dignity" law in Massachusetts.
Barbara's last weeks and months of existence, her final
days, flooded from my memory, and especially her
frustration with being forced by government to stick
around and endure as her body steadily shut down, and
despite the nearing inevitable. She was quite
vocal about her anger, both to me and to the readers of
her weekly columns in The Salem News and other
newspapers.
I sent the
following to Rep. Lori Erlich of Marblehead, along with
copies to our state Senator, Brendan Crighton of Lynn,
and to neighboring Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem, all
reportedly supporters:
Please consider the below excerpts as posthumous
testimony on Tuesday before the Joint Committee
on Public Health on behalf of your
late-constituent, Barbara Anderson, formerly of
Marblehead, in favor of adoption of
H.1926 /
S.1208 (An Act Relative to End of Life
Options). As her “significant other,” partner
and next door neighbor for over two decades I’m
sure she’d want to be heard, and I’ll bet you
know how much she would as well.
She
laid out the best curse I’ve ever heard,
concerning the previously defeated “death with
dignity” ballot question: “. . . I admit
to hating the voters who said no to the recent
'death with dignity' ballot question; hope they
live long enough to regret it.” Barbara
lived “long enough” to earn that judgment.
Chip Ford
High walls and hard lessons
by Barbara Anderson
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Excerpt:
". . . When I get angry, it's when my own
rights are attacked. For instance, as I get
older, I want the right to choose assisted
suicide should I be in a "ready to die"
mode. But no, despite my having left the
Catholic Church 55 years ago, it still had
the power to fight a ballot question that
would give me personal autonomy over its
religious doctrine. My own emotions don't
usually run deep, my being a rational,
logical person and all, but I admit to
hating the voters who said no to the recent
"death with dignity" ballot question; hope
they live long enough to regret it. Or
better still, hope the bill supporting
doctor-assisted suicide filed by my state
rep Lori Ehrlich passes this year.
"Unfortunately, legislative leaders were
non-committal, with Gov. Charlie Baker
taking his lead from the voters who rejected
the ballot question. As an expert on the
initiative process, I believe that the
attorney general should not have approved
the petition, since its assumption violates
the First Amendment to the Constitution,
giving me religious freedom. We do not have
an official religion in this country that
can tell us individuals what to do. It
should be understood that I have a right to
die with my doctor's assistance."
Fighting pirates with the Lost Boys
by Barbara Anderson
The Salem News and The Eagle-Tribune
Monday, April 11, 2016
Editor’s note:
Barbara Anderson of Marblehead, longtime
Salem News columnist and taxpayer advocate,
died Friday after a battle with leukemia.
This is her final column.
Excerpt:
"Darn, I knew this was going to happen
someday.
"If you’re reading this, I’m dead.
"'Second star to the right and on 'til
morning’ — now I never have to grow up, much
less grow old.
"I was in the autumn of my life. I figure
that the years until I became a mother were
spring, then there was summer til about 50,
then autumn til death, which may be a lot
like winter: you hibernate until the next
spring comes around and you get another
chance to enjoy the seasons. Unless autumn
gets extended because you don’t die when you
really ought to, and hang around
deteriorating because the government thinks
you don’t have a right to die when you want.
"If, despite my living will and various
plans to control my dying, I end up hanging
around, then I curse the government for the
last time, though certainly not the only."
For a state
that adopts the craziest, most radical of laws in the
nation, I wonder why it resists so strenuously
permitting the most personal choice of all: "death
with dignity"? According to the advocacy group
Compassion And Choices, nine states and the District
of Columbia now permit it, get out of the way (Oregon,
Washington, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado,
Hawaii, Washington, D.C., New Jersey and Maine) — but
not Massachusetts.
Maybe it's
just because everything in The People's Republic of
Taxachusetts that isn't mandatory is forbidden.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
A Boston Herald editorial
Mass mishandling of UBI inevitable
Mass program sure to get it wrong
Universal Basic Income may someday come to
Massachusetts but if a long-shot bill on Beacon
Hill is any indication, we’ll be doing it wrong.
UBI is a model to provide every citizen or
resident a stable monthly stipend with which to
supplement their income, regardless of their
work status or any other factor.
Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang
calls his UBI a “Freedom Dividend,” which “Would
enable all Americans to pay their bills, educate
themselves, start businesses, be more creative,
stay healthy, relocate for work, spend time with
their children, take care of loved ones, and
have a real stake in the future,” according to
his website.
The idea is to give people access to some
disposable income even as our economy undergoes
major changes. As manufacturing, retail and
truck driving jobs are automated away, for
instance, those employed in those fields would
have enough pocket money to make adjustments. In
addition, if UBI were to replace some existing
benefits programs, it could potentially cut down
on administrative costs and eliminating the
bureaucratic middle man. Fewer government
salaries? Yes, please.
But the bill hatched on Beacon Hill is
different. It would test UBI on 100 residents in
each of three cities or towns. Everyone chosen
for the trial program would receive $1,000 a
month for three years and agree to participate
in a study.
The bill is co-sponsored by state Sen. James B.
Eldridge (D-Acton) and Rep. Tami L. Gouveia
(D-Acton), and a quick reading of the text gives
a pretty good indication of the impetus behind
it.
House Bill 1632 would require that a report
would be filed after one year to, among other
things, consider “How universal basic income
could be used to address historic and
contemporary inequalities, including, but not
limited to, institutional racism.”
In other words, a social justice program using
the taxpayer’s money.
This bill is not expected to get anywhere and it
shouldn’t. The UBI conversation is an
interesting one to have for both conservatives
and liberals as our economy changes but it
should not be tethered to the progressive cause
du jour.
State House News
Service
Friday, June 28, 2019
Advances - Week of June 30, 2019
When Gov. Charlie Baker returns Sunday from a
multi-day trip to London, there won't be a
budget on his desk for the fiscal year that
begins Monday. Lawmakers face no consequences
for once again running late [ninth year in a
row] with their annual budget duties, but MBTA
riders, except those who only use buses, are not
getting off the hook so easily.
Beginning with the Monday morning commute, they
will begin paying higher fares, while continuing
to cope with a system plagued by service delays
and disruptive shutdowns that officials say will
become more common in order to make repairs and
improvements. The $30 million fare hike comes as
the Legislature reviews Baker's new request (H
3934), pending before the House Ways and Means
Committee, for $50 million to accelerate system
improvements in the face of public backlash
against the T.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo appears open to
granting the $50 million request and is also
planning a debate this fall on other long-term
revenue-generating options for transportation.
As investigators continue to try to figure out
the cause of the mysterious June 11 Red Line
derailment, which wiped out critical signaling
infrastructure, a team of former top national
transportation officials is beginning a broader
MBTA safety review.
Over at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, interim
registrar Jamey Tesler is settling in after Erin
Deveney's sudden resignation this week and
officials are conducting their own potentially
high stakes review to determine how many more
licensed drivers may be on the roads who
shouldn't be. State officials disclosed this
week that a lapse prevented them from revoking
the license of a man accused of killing seven
motorcyclists while driving a truck last Friday
on Route 2 in Randolph, N.H.
Massachusetts residents are also channeling
their focus on Essex County where the district
attorney on Thursday announced investigations
are underway into at least five recent baby
deaths, including three babies under the
oversight of the Department of Children and
Families.
In the weeks heading into the traditional summer
recess, lawmakers have a shot at wrapping up
work on a fiscal 2019 supplemental budget and
bills cracking down on distracted driving and
aiding public employee unions, but most of the
near-term focus is on the nearly $43 billion
annual state budget.
Negotiators won't say what's holding up talks or
why the budget will be late again. The House and
Senate may try to agree on a fiscal 2020 budget
before Thursday's Fourth of July holiday,
although a $5 billion interim budget passed this
week and signed by Baker buys the six-member
conference committee more time to settle
differences.
Baker offered enough money in the temporary
budget to keep government running through July
and the Legislature quickly approved his exact
request, which Acting Gov. Karyn Polito signed
within hours of receiving it.
Legislative leaders have not scheduled a formal
session to take up the budget compromise because
they don't know when it will arrive so most
lawmakers, like everyone else with a stake in
the budget, are waiting for white smoke from the
conference committee led by Sen. Michael
Rodrigues of Westport and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz
of Boston.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Aid in dying bill framed as question of choice
By Kaitlyn Budion
Massachusetts lawmakers are once again debating
the ethical questions around medical aid in
dying, and advocates turned out in droves
Tuesday to make their voices heard with
emotional testimony from both sides of what's
become a perennial public policy issue.
"Everyone must be allowed to make their own
choice based on their own beliefs," said Rep.
Louis Kafka [D-Sharon], the sponsor of
legislation to legalize medical aid in dying.
Seven years after the idea was narrowly defeated
during a statewide vote, Kafka has again filed
legislation to legalize medical aid in dying --
refered to by some as medically assisted suicide
or by others as death with dignity. The Joint
Committee on Public Health on Tuesday held a
public hearing on the legislation, which Kafka
said has been updated to address concerns he
heard in past years.
"For more than a decade now I have fine-tuned
the End of Life Options Act, by listening and
exploring the concerns articulated during
hearings for previous versions of the bill," he
said.
Kafka was inspired to first file the legislation
after a constituent who was dying from stomach
cancer, Al, reached out to his office.
"I continue to file the bill because I feel Al
and many people like him deserve the choice of
how they end their life," he said. "I don't know
if Al would have in the end have taken advantage
of the legislation, but he should have had that
option."
The bill outlines the process of requesting
medicine that would aid death. First, the
terminally ill patient must bring up the topic
with their doctor; it cannot be recommended by
the doctor. The patient must also be determined
by a second doctor to be terminally ill, and
meet with a mental health professional who must
confirm that the patient is not seeking the
option due to mental health conditions. The
patient then must submit a written request, that
must be made with two witnesses, one of whom
must not be a relative.
Opponents of the bill say that the proposed
process will not actually catch patients with
mental health problems, calling the measures
"laughable."
Ruthie Poole, president of the board of M-POWER,
a grassroots organization for people with lived
experience of mental health diagnosis, trauma,
and addiction spoke against the legislation. It
is unreasonable to expect a therapist to make
the decision as to a patient's mental health
after only one visit, Poole said, especially if
the patient is suicidal, and would actively wish
to deceive the counselor to get approval.
"Personally, as someone who has been very
suicidal in the past I can really relate to the
desire for a painless, easy way out," Poole
said. "However, depression is treatable and
reversible and I'm living proof of that. Suicide
is not."
Passing the legislation would run counter to
suicide prevention efforts, she said, calling it
a "slap in the face."\
"Any assisted suicide bill will send a message
to people, in mental distress old, young,
phsyically ill or not, that suicide is a
reasonable answer to life's problems," Poole
said. "It is not."
The bill also defines a terminally ill patient
as someone who is reasonably expected to not
live longer than the next six months, and
specifies that a person cannot qualify for aid
in dying solely because of age or disability. In
addition, if a patient has a legal guardian,
they also do not qualify.
Diane Rehm, a radio show host for National
Public Radio, spoke about her husband, who
passed away from Parkinson's disease. He had
been in hospice, but had lost much of his
autonomy. Rehm said he asked his physician about
options and was told the only way to shorten his
suffering was to stop eating, drinking, and
taking medication. So he did.
"It took ten long days for him to die," Rehm
said. "I was there with him watching him grimace
but knowing that he didn't want to be stopped on
the path he was on. In the end he died a very
painful elongated death which I will never ever
forget."
Several states have legalized medical aid in
dying, including California, Colorado, Montana,
Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C.
Opponents of the bill predicted that if the bill
is approved, low-income people, people of color
and disabled people would be targeted.
"The end of life options act may sound good with
its ideal of person in control choosing when to
end their sufering, but in reality for far too
many people, it functions like a death penalty,"
said John Kelly, the director of Second Thoughts
Massachusetts, a disability rights group.
Others echoed Kelly's concerns.
Kristen Hanson, community relations advocate at
the Patients Rights Action Fund, became involved
in the issue after her husband, JJ, was
diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Although
the first three doctors the couple went to said
there was nothing that could be done to treat JJ,
they persevered, and he lived for several more
years.
JJ became involved with the fight against
medical aid in dying after his diagnosis, and
Hanson continues his work now. But even though
he was opposed to medical aid in dying, he told
Hanson that if he had access to the medication
early in his diagnosis when he felt like a
burden to his family, he might have taken it.
"Assisted suicide laws abandon vulnerable
patients like JJ, who can experience depression
at any point following their illness," Hanson
said. "Once patients receive the prescription
they're on their own. There's no requirement for
a doctor to follow up on them. Worst still,
assisted suicide injects governmental pressure
and profit driven insurance decisions into
everyone's end of life care."
In 2012, the issue went to the ballot and was
defeated with 48.9 percent in favor and 51.1
percent against, although proponents said the
ballot question did not have the process that is
outlined in the latest version of the bill.
Last session, the bill was sent to study in
March 2018, effectively killing it. But
proponents also have new hope after the
Massachusetts Medical Society changed position
on the issue last session. After opposing the
option for many years, in December 2017 the
society changed its position and adopted a
neutral stance.
Signhild Tamm, from Falmouth, who supports the
legislation, spoke about her personal
experience. She was diagnosed with stage four
pancreatic cancer just before her 74th birthday,
a "death sentence." Tamm said she didn't want to
spend the end of her life dealing with hospital
visits, complications and side effects, and
instead chose to go into hospice care. She said
she can only hope that she will have peace and
comfort before she dies.
"As I'm speaking to you I can feel the pain, I
feel the cancer growing in me, and hurting me,
killing me," Tamm said. "It would be an immense
relief if I knew I could choose to end my
suffering in consultation with my doctor. If
this ultimately becomes law in Massachusetts it
will be too late to help me but it is certain to
help others like me."
Beacon Hill Roll
Call
Volume 44 - Report No. 26
Week of June 24-28, 2019
By Bob Katzen
Physician-Assisted Suicide (H 1194) - The Public
Health Committee held a jam-packed hearing on
the controversial bill that would allow
terminally ill patients with fewer than six
months to live to obtain medication they can
self-administer to commit suicide. The bill
includes many rules and protocols that must be
followed before the patient is given the
medicine.
Voters defeated a similar measure on the 2012
ballot by a very slim 51 percent to 49 percent
margin with 1,466,866 voting for the measure and
1,534,757 against. There were also 182,573 blank
ballots of people who took a ballot but did not
vote on this question.
“I first filed this bill on behalf of a
constituent who was dying of stomach cancer,”
said Rep. Lou Kafka (D-Sharon). “Having worked
on this issue for over a decade, I have only
become more passionate that this should be an
option at the end of life. We can’t sit in
judgement of those in such personal pain.
Everyone must be allowed to make their own
choice based on their own beliefs.”
“The question of assisted suicide was put before
the voters of our Commonwealth in 2012, and they
rejected it,” said Massachusetts Family
Institute President Andrew Beckwith. “That’s
because people understand that if we legalize
doctors prescribing poison for certain patients
to take their own lives, we would in effect
codify that those lives are no longer worthy of
legal protection. That would in itself be
tragic, but would also set a dangerous
precedent, blurring the line between natural
death and medical manslaughter.”
Diane Rehm, a former National Public Radio talk
show host, related her personal experience with
this issue. Her husband John Rehm was afflicted
with Parkinson’s Disease and sought alternatives
to hospice care. His doctor told him that his
only option was to stop eating, drinking, and
taking his medications. “It took ten long days
for him to die,” Rehm told the committee. “I was
there with him watching him grimace but knowing
that he did not want to be stopped on the path
he was on. In the end he died a very painful
elongated death which I will never ever forget.”
“This measure will replace a sanctity of life
ethic with a quality of life ethic," said
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J.
Doyle. "It will deform the medical profession by
making doctors participants in the death of
their patients. Disturbingly, the legislation
contains no requirement for the notification of
family or next of kin, and no conscience clause
for pharmacists. Powerful insurance companies,
which already exercise a disproportionate
influence on legislation and public policy,
through their assets in lobbying, public
relations and campaign finance, will have a
financial incentive in the promotion of this
practice.”
Citizens for Limited Taxation’s (CLT)
Executive Director Chip Ford submitted,
on his own behalf, written posthumous testimony
from his partner former CLT chief Barbara
Anderson who passed away in April 2016.
Anderson wrote of assisted suicide in a March
2016 column, two weeks before she died following
a struggle with leukemia.
“When I get angry, it’s when my own rights are
attacked,” wrote Anderson. “… I want the right
to choose assisted suicide should I be in a
‘ready to die’ mode. But no, despite my having
left the Catholic Church 55 years ago, it still
had the power to fight a ballot question that
would give me personal autonomy over its
religious doctrine. My own emotions don’t
usually run deep, my being a rational, logical
person and all, but I admit to hating the voters
who said no to the recent ‘death with dignity’
ballot question. [I] hope they live long enough
to regret it.”
“The end of life options act may sound good with
its ideal of person in control choosing when to
end their suffering, but in reality, for far too
many people, it functions like a death penalty,”
said John Kelly, Director of Second Thoughts
Massachusetts, a group that champions disabled
persons’ rights.
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
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