Compassion & Choices and its Connecticut supporters praised the state legislature’s Public Health Committee for reintroducing a bill that would authorize medical aid in dying as an option for terminally ill, mentally capable state residents to peacefully end unbearable suffering.

The bill, An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients (H.B. 6425), is championed by Joint Public Health Committee House Chair Representative Jonathan Steinberg (Westport). The Connecticut State Medical Society dropped its opposition to medical aid in dying and adopted a neutral position. 

“This COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the fragility of life and the limits of modern medicine to relieve suffering,” said Rep. Steinberg. “We are committed to assuring that everyone has equal access to the full range of end-of-life care options. Medical aid in dying, as an end-of-life care option for terminally ill, mentally capable adults in Connecticut, will empower them to make end-of-life care decisions based on their unique culture, beliefs, and spiritual values.”

By a 2-1 margin (63% vs. 31%), Connecticut voters support medical aid in dying, including a majority of Republicans, Democrats, independents, men, women, and age groups, according to a 2015 Quinnipiac University poll. While there have been no Connecticut polls on this issue since this pandemic hit, the most recent Gallup poll, conducted in May 2020, shows 74% of Americans support medical aid in dying, a 6-point jump from the 68% support in Gallup’s pre-pandemic poll in May 2019 (see question 15 on page 2).  

Donald A. Pels hugs stepdaughter Juliette J. Meeus

“My 86-year-old stepfather, Donald A. Pels, in the years prior to his death had been deteriorating from congestive heart failure and had endured multiple interventions, including bypass surgery,” said Old Lyme resident Juliette J. Meeus. “What followed was a terrible two weeks of watching him slip away, bit by bit, day by day. His last two weeks were torture for him and traumatic for the entire family. There was no peacefulness. It is unconscionable that anyone should have to leave their home and move to another state in order to access medical aid-in-dying laws and avoid a painful, prolonged death.”

The Connecticut bill is modeled after the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which has been successfully implemented for more than 20 years with no record of abuse or misuse. Medical aid in dying also is authorized in Washington, D.C., and eight other states: California, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. 

“I got very emotional when my friend, the legendary actor René Auberjunois, told me on the phone that he got a diagnosis of stage-four lung cancer,” said 76-year-old Easton resident Michael Tucker, an actor who has been nominated for three Emmy Awards. “But because he lived in California, where medical aid in dying is legal, he created for himself and his family a beautiful death. I have no idea how or when I’m going to die. But if I know that if Connecticut passed a bill that guarantees care and choice at the end of life, then my life will be better now.”

“There is no good reason why terminally ill Connecticut residents should not have the same peaceful dying option as residents of nearby states of Maine, New Jersey, and Vermont,” said Compassion & Choices Connecticut campaign director Tim Appleton. “After seven years of debate on this issue, it is time for the Legislature to pass this popular legislation so not more terminally ill Connecticut resident has to die with needless suffering.”

“We’re living through unprecedented, difficult times, but the need for compassionate end-of-life care hasn’t gone away,’” said Westport resident and Tony Award-winning actor James Naughton, whose wife Pam Parsons died from terminal pancreatic cancer, “If anything, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for terminally ill patients to have an option to die peacefully from a variety of deadly diseases.”

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