Jo has lived and worked in western Massachusetts since the late 1990s, arriving fresh out of New York City’s Hunter College School of Social Work where she focused on homelessness policy, prison reform, and earned an MSW.
As Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee last session, I had the opportunity to dig into the medical aid-in-dying legislation and listen deeply to Commonwealth residents. We heard harrowing stories from people whose relatives suffered during their last days, and we heard about the need to provide a voluntary medical option for terminally-ill people to control the timing and manner of their death. My bill (S.1384, An Act relative to end of life options) allows someone who is terminally ill to choose a peaceful death with dignity, by requesting medication from a doctor that the person may self-administer at a time of their own choosing, should suffering become unbearable. This bill protects all patients, affords dying people autonomy and compassion during the most difficult time, and protects potentially vulnerable people from any coercion.