As R.I. considers bill to legalize medical aid in dying, Magaziner's mother-in-law testifies in support

Boston Globe

23-05-2025

Opponents urged the committee to reject the bill, saying it aims to legalize a practice that Rhode Island's criminal code now calls 'assisted suicide.'
McDowell, 72, of Little Compton, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying she is a direct descendant of Stephen Hopkins, a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island who added his 'very wobbly signature' to the Declaration of Independence.
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She said the musical '1776″ portrayed Hopkins as 'the only drunk in the room,' but she believes he actually suffered hereditary spastic paraplegia, a large group of rare and progressive inherited disorders that cause weakness and stiffness of the legs.
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'I've lost an aunt, a first cousin, my father, and my beloved brother to HSP,' McDowell said, adding that she is showing signs of the disorder. 'I can barely sign my name now.'
She said the strain that runs through her family affects people in their late 60s and early 70s. 'We are dead within five years,' she said. 'There are no cures.'
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McDowell said she has three children and two grandchildren. 'That I may be passing this on to them is a heartbreak I just can't even describe,' she said. 'They will have to decide if they want to test for it or not, if an accurate test even exists.'
People should be able to choose a 'well-planned death,' she said. 'Your death via a difficult, painful, and terrifying illness will be a difficult and painful experience for everybody who loves you. It should not have to be this way.'
McDowell urged the committee to support the legislation, saying, 'I deserve the right to a peaceful death, preferably at home, surrounded by family and those who love me.'
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The legislation drew opposition from Barth E. Bracy, executive director of the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee.
'While proponents now prefer to call it by another name, Senate Bill 151 seeks to legalize a practice presently described in the Rhode Island Criminal Code as assisted suicide,' Bracy said in written testimony. 'Assisted suicide is not medicine. It is bad public policy that puts unsuspecting people at risk."
Bracy warned that the legislation could result in 'abuse of the elderly and disabled' and 'exploitation of any one of us who may have an estate coveted by others or who may be regarded as a burden.'
The safeguards included in the bill are 'porous,' Bracy said. Severely depressed or mentally ill person could receive a lethal prescription without having any counseling, he said, and the bill does not require consultation with a patient's primary care physician.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held the bill for further study. Representative Edith H. Ajello, a Providence Democrat, has for years proposed companion
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Kallman, a Pawtucket Democrat, noted the bill has bipartisan support, with cosponsors including Senator Minority Whip Gordon E. Rogers, a Foster Republican. And she noted the bill, titled The Lila Manfield Sapinsley Compassionate Care Act, is named for the late Senate Republican leader who died in 2014.
Kallman said the legislation is personal for her. 'My grandfather was a farmer. He was a very staid guy. He did not talk about feelings,' he said. 'And he got cancer in his late 70s.'
To prompt a conversation, he began 'littering the house' with pamphlets detailing the 'death with dignity' laws in Vermont and Oregon, Kallman said. 'It was not a conversation that we ever finished because he passed away of that cancer in 2016,' she said.
Kallman noted that under the bill, anyone requesting end-of-life medication must be over 18, a Rhode Island resident, and diagnosed with a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less. They would have to make two verbal requests for the medication at least 15 days apart 'to protect against an impulsive request,' she said.
They also would have to provide a written request to the doctor that's signed in front of two qualified adult witnesses 'to prevent coercion,' Kallman said. Two doctors would have to confirm the patient's diagnosis, prognosis, and ability to make medical decisions.
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Brian Bennett, a mental health counselor from North Kingstown, spoke in opposition to the bill, saying he works with young people who are suffering and considering suicide.
'One of the protective factors against suicide is the belief — be it moral, ethical, religious, or civil — that suicide is wrong," he said. 'By legalizing assisted suicide under whatever name we choose to call it in this bill, we put that belief in doubt and remove one more barrier to suicide for some of the most vulnerable among us.'
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Bennett said he fears the legislation could end up being expanded. " If you pass this bill, tomorrow you will have experts sitting in this seat asking you why assisted suicide ought to apply to physical illness and not to mental illness, and frankly, they'll have a point," he said.
Clare Kearney, of Barrington, testified with an oxygen tube in her nose. She said she spent years as a nurse working on oncology units and respirator intensive care units. 'I am now a patient myself, going through the horror that I witnessed taking care of my patients,' she said.
Kearney said she now has interstitial lung disease and end-stage emphysema, with 25 percent lung capacity. 'The doctors look at me as a miracle,' she said. 'The pain I suffer today is horrific. I have headaches that don't go away because I'm not getting oxygen to my brain. I have back and chest pain, chest tightness, nausea, diarrhea.'
Kearney said it's 'an insult' for opponents to say the bill is about depression.
'This bill is about dignity in dying,' she said. 'This bill would help me decide, when the time comes — which will be in a year or two — for me to do to do it with compassion, with my family. If I can't, then I'll go to a hotel and I'll take some pills, and a poor maid will find my body."
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Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at