I have always believed in respecting people’s bodily autonomy and their right to make their own healthcare decisions throughout their life.
That’s why I spent three years as Executive Director of NARAL “Pro-Choice Connecticut before becoming a state representative, joining the Public Health Committee, and forming the Reproductive Rights Caucus. That’s why I sponsored, with multiple colleagues, the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, that passed by a double-digit margin on a bipartisan basis and Gov. Lamont signed into law last May, after the Supreme Court issued its draft ruling that abortion is not a constitutional right.
And my respect for bodily autonomy is why I support the legislation approved last week by the Public Health Committee that would allow mentally capable, terminally ill individuals to make their own healthcare decisions at the end of life. The bill, an Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients (SB1076), would provide terminally ill adults with the option to peacefully end unbearable suffering at the end of life.
I am by no means alone in making this bodily autonomy connection between medical aid in dying and reproductive rights. Both male and female witnesses at the Public Health Committee hearing who testified in support of SB1076 cited this connection in their heartbreaking stories about loved ones who died with needless suffering without the option of medical aid in dying.
“People who recognize that personal autonomy should be protected, as in protecting a woman's right to choose in the abortion debate, should recognize that people who are suffering extreme pain as they're dying should have the same right to choose to end their lives, their unbearable suffering,” testified Weston resident Jim Naughton. “I come to you this fourth or fifth time in a row because I had that experience with my wife, who suffered for 4 years with pancreatic cancer … she was emaciated… She was dependent on a pain pump, an oxygen tank, a bile duct drain because she had a blockage in a bile duct.”
“…[M]y beloved mother died of ALS,” testified Fairfield resident Jennifer Barahona. “She stopped taking nutrition through her feeding tube on September 1st, 2009. We were told we had a few days, and to our horror, she spent two-and-a-half weeks moaning, with her limbs turning black, pleading with her eyes … she would likely not have chosen this option for herself, but I also know and have no doubt that she'd support this choice for others. She believed like I do…that individuals should have autonomy over their bodies.”
These testimonials are not just anecdotes. Based on recent polling, I am confident the vast majority of pro-choice voters in Connecticut support medical aid in dying and view it as another issue of bodily autonomy.
A 2021 GQR poll shows that 75% of Connecticut voters support medical aid in dying.
While the GBR poll did not measure support among Connecticut voters who self-identify as pro-choice, a January poll in a similar blue state, Maryland, showed 71 percent of voters statewide support medical aid in dying, including 82% of pro-choice voters.
And a February poll conducted in the red state Montana showed 74 percent of voters statewide personally wanted the option of medical aid in dying if they had a terminal illness, including 79 percent of “pro-choice voters (and 66 percent of “pro-life” voters).
An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients is modeled after the practice of medical aid in dying in Washington, D.C. and 10 other states that have provided relief for terminally ill adults for 25 years, without one documented case of misuse. But this year, the Connecticut medical aid-in-dying bill features some of the strictest eligibility criteria and safeguards in the country, including requiring two written requests, two witnesses to both requests, and a mandatory mental health evaluation.
Given these facts, I urge my “pro-choice” colleagues to recognize that we need to be consistent on issues of bodily autonomy and pass this compassionate legislation to provide our constituents with the option to gently end unbearable suffering at the inevitable end of life.
