On January 16, 2025, the End of Life Options Act (S.1486/H.2505) was introduced for the 2025-2026 legislative session by Senator Jo Comerford, Representative Jim O’Day and Representative Ted Philips.
On April 2, S.1486/H.2505: An Act Relative to End of Life Options was heard by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health. On July 30, 2025, H.2505 was reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Public Health by a vote of 9-1. H.2505, the House bill, is now in the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. The Senate bill, S.1486, remains in the Joint Committee on Public Health.
While we wait, we ask that advocates in Massachusetts use the link below to email their legislators and ask them to co-sponsor this session’s bills.
The Massachusetts End of Life Options Act would authorize medical aid in dying in Massachusetts, bringing the full range of end-of-life care options to terminally ill Massachusetts residents. Email your lawmakers today and urge them to cosponsor the bill.
Ahn v. Hestrin, California On June 16, a superior court ruled that a lawsuit to overturn the California End of Life Option Act will proceed to trial to determine the case’s merits. Last year, the court accepted a friend-of-the-court brief filed on behalf of Compassion & Choices urging it to deny the plaintiffs’ motion for…
In response to a legislative briefing held today at noon by opponents of the End of Life Options Act (H.1194/S.1225), bill supporters highlighted the safeguards in the legislation designed to protect vulnerable populations. The Joint Public Health Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation this Tuesday, September 26. The bill would authorize medical aid…
(Boston, Mass. – June 6, 2017) A Massachusetts judge rejected a motion to dismiss a lawsuit asserting the state constitution protects, and existing state law does not bar, doctors in Massachusetts who provide medical aid in dying for mentally capable, terminally ill adults. Compassion & Choices filed the lawsuit on behalf of two Barnstable County…
Compassion & Choices thanked Representative Lou Kafka and Senator Barbara L’Italien today for filing the End of Life Options Act that would give terminally ill, mentally capable adults diagnosed with 6 months or less to live the option, if they wish, to obtain a prescription from their doctor to self-administer a medication that will provide…
(Suffolk, Mass. – Oct. 26, 2016) Compassion & Choices has filed suit in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of two Barnstable County doctors asserting current state law allows physicians to offer terminally ill, mentally capable adults the option of medical aid in dying. Compassion & Choices won a similar suit in 2009 when the…
Last night, the Cambridge City Council became the first in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pass a resolution supporting medical aid in dying. The vote was nine to zero. Mayor Denise Simmons also voted in favor. The resolution will be transmitted to the Governor and to Senators and Representatives from Cambridge in the Legislature on…
Check out the message we sent today to our supporters in Massachusetts: Friend, As you may know, the Compassionate Aid in Dying Act, which authorizes aid in dying in Massachusetts, is still under review by the Joint Public Health Committee of the state legislature. While the bill is being reviewed on Beacon Hill, we need…
Devoted Massachusetts volunteer Susan Shapiro contributed greatly to the end-of-life choice movement from 2008 until her death on April 30. “She was a bright light sending a very clear message,” says Compassion & Choices Massachusetts Campaign Manager Marie Manis, who met Susan in the lead-up to Massachusetts’ death-with-dignity ballot initiative in 2012 – one month…
The anguish of helplessly watching his father suffer from terminal stomach cancer alerted Jerome Medalie to the dire state of end-of-life healthcare — in 1969. “I was appalled at the pain he was going through,” says Jerome, a Yale University and Harvard Law graduate, and World War II vet. “He knew I had a gun…
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