Around New England

Assisted Suicide Not A Constitutional Right In Massachusetts, State Supreme Judicial Court Decides

December 19, 2022

Assisted suicide is not a right under the Massachusetts Constitution, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

“Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life decisions, after careful consideration, we conclude that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights does not reach so far as to protect physician-assisted suicide. We conclude as well that the law of manslaughter may prohibit physician-assisted suicide, and does so, without offending constitutional protections,” the court said in a decision Monday, December 19.

The highly anticipated decision was considered overdue.

Roger Kligler, a doctor in Falmouth who has prostate cancer, and Alan Stenbach, a doctor in Falmouth who would like to be able to prescribe life-ending drugs for terminally ill patients, brought the lawsuit.

Supporters of assisted suicide are planning to bring forward a bill in the new legislative session that begins in January 2023 that would legalize it. Previous attempts have failed, as did a statewide referendum in 2012.

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