PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — For generations, Jennifer McDowell says, her family has been living with an incurable genetic disease. Now she’s asking Rhode Island leaders to let her die with dignity.
“I deserve the right to a peaceful death, preferably at home, surrounded by family and those who love me,” she said in her testimony before the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
McDowell, who is Congressman Seth Magaziner’s mother-in-law, was one of several Rhode Islanders sharing their personal stories in support of physician-assisted death as lawmakers consider a bill that would let terminally ill patients ask their doctors to prescribe medication to end their lives.
McDowell said she is starting to show signs of a disease that she believes goes back as far as her ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, who signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of Rhode Islanders.
“They characterized him as the only drunk in the room. I beg to differ,” she said. “I think it was hereditary spastic paraplegia.”
She said that the disease has continued through her family.
“We are dead within five years,” McDowell said. “There are no cures. I’ve lost an aunt, a first cousin, my father, and my beloved brother to HSP. And I can barely sign my name now.”
Currently, 11 states and the District of Columbia allow physician-assisted death. But some people believe this legislation puts people with disabilities and the elderly at risk.
“Instead of fighting for appropriate care at the end of the line, we’re introducing legislation that pushes people towards ending their own life,” said Jessica Rodgers, the coalition director of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a national organization dedicated to fighting bills like the legislation proposed in Rhode Island.
But state Senator Meghan Kallman of Pawtucket and Providence said the legislation she proposed is designed to prevent abuse.
She said the bill would only be available to terminally ill adults who ask for physician-assisted death twice and are still able to consent.
“There are requirements,” Kallman explained. She says her bill requires two different doctors to verify that a patient’s illness has “six months or less as a prognosis.”
No formal date has been set for the Judiciary Committee to vote on the legislation, but Senate President Val Lawson expressed interest on Tuesday.
“I will be reviewing the committee testimony and speaking to Chairman Matthew LaMountain regarding the details of the legislation. Personally, I am in support of the bill,” she wrote.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, seek immediate help:
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call, text or chat 988
BH Link: Rhode Islanders can call 401-414-LINK (5465)
Kids’ Link RI: Parents can call 1-855-543-5465
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