“Take My Hand, Not My Life” Emphasizes Beauty of Living

By Curt Lovelace
August 29, 2000

Massachusetts Citizens For Life on Monday announced a major advertising campaign against euthanasia and assisted suicide. The campaign, called “Take My hand, Not My Life,” coincides with the beginning of the Hemlock Society’s World Conference on Assisted Dying which will take place in Boston next week. The Hemlock Society is an international leader in the assisted suicide and euthanasia legalization movement.

In announcing the campaign and introducing several speakers at the State House ceremony, MCFL President R.T. Neary told a crowd of approximately 50 people that, “Adequate pain management is not taught properly to physicians today. We hope to place an emphasis on it. We commend those state legislators who are working to improve end of life care.”

Dr. Richard Fenigsen, the first speaker, was a medical doctor in Holland. He told Massachusetts News that he resigned from the Royal Dutch Medical Society the day after that organization published it’s statement endorsing both voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Several years later, he reports, he said to his wife, “I will not live in a country that legalizes euthanasia.” They moved to the United States in 1995.

Fenigsen told the crowd, “Assisted suicide is proposed as a solution for people who would die soon anyway. But medical prognoses are notoriously unreliable.” He gave several examples of people who were diagnosed with terminal diseases, refused to give in, and lived long, productive lives.

Well-known Boston physician and MCFL board member Mildred Jefferson likened the current debate to the struggle over slavery. She said, “As Boston stood as a beacon against slavery in the 19th century, so let Massachusetts stand as a beacon against euthanasia and assisted suicide in the 21st century.” She asked, “What quality of life can possibly be based upon the sacrifice of some of its citizens.”

Jennifer Sweet, a licensed social worker and spiritual counselor at the Old Colony Hospice in Stoughton, told the gathering, “The Hemlock and the World Federation of Right to Die Societies would like us to believe that death is not a natural part of our life cycle, but instead something that needs to be controlled and managed.  There are two aspects of dying that my patients often tell me they are the most scared of: dying in pain and dying alone.  These are natural fears.  Unfortunately, the proponents of assisted suicide have done a good job reinforcing these fears within our society—to the point now, that many people believe that death is all about the fear, the pain, the isolation, and lack of independence.” She added that in the hospice and palliative care field, people prove every day that there is much more to the process of dying. “We help people to live out of love, not fear of the dying process,” she explained.

The final speaker of the afternoon was Mary Drahos, who views herself as living proof of the quality of life possible for those with serious and life-threatening conditions. Drahos has suffered with Multiple Sclerosis for decades and is currently confined to a wheelchair. She has also fought pancreatic cancer for many years. Once told that she would never be able to read again, Drahos has since written “two off-Broadway plays and four books.” From the perspective of a patient, She pleaded with the audience, “don’t give up so easily.” We’re being taught these days, she said, that in a society in which we are to believe that “natural” things are the best, “The most natural thing in the world [death] is unnatural.”

The $30,000 ad campaign will encompass bus and MBTA train advertising as well as a full-page ad in the Boston Herald. Executive Director Mary Clare Flynn told Massachusetts News, that despite the perception that MCFL only focuses on abortion, this campaign is a natural extension of the mission or MCFL. She said, “MCFL would not be true to its mandate if it did not defend the most vulnerable in our society.”
 

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