Massachusetts

has no problem with advanced directives, DNR orders, or the right to refuse treatment. Nor is this about palliative care.

I suggest you check out the materials at the link I provided.

That we can be cruel as a species isn't in doubt. It's another reason why people with disabilities--who have so often been the targets of that cruelty--are so skeptical about physician assisted suicide. The Nazis you mention had their own version of the term "quality of life." They called it "life unworthy of life." The T-4 program-which exterminated people with disabilities throughout Germany--was the dress rehearsal for the Holocaust. People with disabilities are still targeted by right wing hate groups. In Germany neo-Nazis taunt us chanting "Under Hitler you'd be gassed." In parts of Africa people with albinism are murdered so their body parts can be harvested for magical "cures." Here in America the prisons are filled with people with cognitive and mental disabilities.

And here in Massachusetts we've had to fight this "Death with Dignity" measure again and again. It's especially frightening now during the pandemic, when there are documented cases of people with disabilities being denied treatment--for instance ventilators--because someone has decided that the "quality of life" of someone who uses a wheelchair isn't worth the bother.

I'm sorry that you've been through painful end of life experiences with family. It's why hospice is so essential. And why, again, I have no problem with DNRs--which my partner signed during the last months of her life.

But all that is a far cry from empowering physicians to actively cause your death.

Again, check out the materials at the Not Dead Yet website. They've been addressing this issue for decades.

Best wishes.