The Salem News column: 'Death with dignity' restores personal liberty
Feb 20, 2020 Massachusetts Massachusetts End of Life Options Act
An excerpt from The Salem News column, “'Death with dignity' restores personal liberty,” by Chip Ford, published Feb. 20, 2020:
While reading the Jan. 29 letter, “Pass ‘death with dignity’ bill” by Betty Breuhaus of Marblehead, I was reminded of the end-of-life ordeal of my life partner of 20 years, Barbara Anderson.
As a reader of The Salem News you will likely remember Barbara, then-executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and a weekly columnist in this and other newspapers for a few decades. I cared for Barbara throughout her health challenge, from the day of diagnosis through over a decade of various treatments, until nothing worked for her any longer, never would. The prognosis was certain, inevitable and quickly approaching. I was at her bedside at home for well over a month, then the hospice facility for the final week, until she passed away.
Fiercely independent, she so much desired passing away on her own terms, rather than enduring a long, drawn out deterioration of mind and body. She was so frustrated, angry that the option was forbidden by law.
As I write I’m reminded that today would have been Barbara’s 76th birthday. What better gift can I give to her than passing on her last wishes, her final thoughts on this topic of death with dignity, reminding her readers of them?