Letter to the editor: Allow Mainers their own end-of-life choices

The state Legislature recently passed, and Gov. Mills signed, the Maine Death with Dignity Act. This law is supported by the vast majority of Mainers, as it provides dying individuals who have but a few months of life remaining with an alternative to unending pain and suffering.

Now the Christian Civic League wants to stop it before it takes effect (“Organizers turn to churches in effort to undo abortion and assisted-suicide laws,” Aug. 9). They are seeking signatures on a petition to put a proposal to repeal the Death with Dignity Act before the voters of Maine.

My question is this: Do those who oppose a Death with Dignity law really believe that a kind and loving god wants them, or anyone else, to suffer a long, lingering, painful, dehumanizing death? Is that what a beneficent god does?

No one is required to avail themselves of this law. Allow Mainers the end-of-life choices they want and need. Ignore the petition and let the Maine Death with Dignity Act take effect in September as intended.

Len Freeman

Portland

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