Marshall and I were perplexed to see the Monitor’s headlined article about the Senate committee hearing on HB 1283 titled, “Who decides the value on a life?” profiling the family of a young man with epilepsy. We are happy for the Kaneb family for having a living son, who brings them “immense joy.” They are blessed. Other families are not so blessed, their sons and daughters are actively dying with less than six months to live.

HB 1283 is not applicable to the Kaneb family. The article creates the false impression that the legislation is targeting the disabled, rather than affording comfort and compassion to the terminally ill at the end of their lives. In describing the eligibility requirements, the article omits the fundamental requirement that the request can only be made by a mentally competent adult, no one else. Thus, this young man’s life does not ‘hang in the balance’ as the article states. The article disregards the rights of terminally ill mentally competent adults with less than six months to live, or worse, casts them as a false equivalency to those who are disabled.

Rachel Rowe

Hopkinton