The Greenfield Recorder: Letter: ‘We need more options’
Aug 21, 2020 Massachusetts Massachusetts End of Life Options Act
An excerpt from the Greenfield Recorder letter to the editor, “‘We need more options’,” by Florence resident Linda Matson, published August 21, 2020:
I am writing concerning John Kelly’s recent opinion piece in the Recorder [‘Older, ill and disabled people deserve choice-promoting services, supports’]. It is so filled with misunderstandings I hardly know where to begin.
Firstly, I would say to Mr. Kelly, you completely misunderstand the intent of the supporters of the End of Life Options Act now in committee in the Mass. legislature. We want EXACTLY the same thing you want, that is, autonomy for individuals. We want free choice of the type of end-of-life care a person needs, and for those choices to be made without coercion of any kind...
I would join in Mr. Kelly’s request that there be more support for disabled, elderly, and ill people in our society. But having watched someone I care about, who had wonderful home care such as Mr. Kelly advocates for, suffer weeks longer than he wished, I know we need more options.
