Template: Letter to Editor in Support of the Massachusetts End of Life Options Act

Please use the bullet points in the template linked pasted below for letters to the editors to send to your local newspaper to urge the Massachusetts Legislature to pass the End of Life Options Act (H.2381/S.1384), but personalize the letter and use your own words. 

Links to the submission information of the 10 largest circulation newspapers in Massachusetts are provided below following the letter to editor template. Please ensure you check the paper’s submission info to determine the requirements for letters to the editor, including word limit, and how to submit it, either via email or online.

If you submit a letter to the editor via email, don’t send it as an attachment since many newsrooms block emails with attachments from unknown addresses for fear of computer viruses. Instead, cut and paste the letter into the email with the “Re:” line of the letter into the Subject Line of the email.

Re: [Insert Title of Story, Date Published] 

Dear Editor:

• The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the profound tragedy of loved ones dying alone, in a hospital or nursing home, without the care and comfort of loved ones surrounding them. 
• This pandemic also demonstrates the fragility of life, the limits of modern medicine to relieve suffering, and magnified the systemic racial disparities in our healthcare system. 
• We must eradicate these disparities, so everyone has equal access to the full range of end-of-life care options. 
• One small, but important step towards achieving this goal is to authorize medical aid in dying as an end-of-life care option for terminally ill, mentally capable adults in Massachusetts to peacefully end intolerable suffering.
• It would empower every state resident to make end-of-life care decisions based on their unique culture, beliefs, and spiritual values.
• These laws have improved care for many terminally ill people in the 10 other jurisdictions that allow medical aid in dying, by spurring doctor-patient conversations about all end-of-life care options, such as hospice and palliative care, and better utilization of them.
• [Insert a story about a loved one who suffered needlessly because they lived in a jurisdiction without the option of medical aid in dying, or loved one who lived in a jurisdiction with this option, so they used it to peacefully end their suffering, at home, surrounded by family].
• 70% of Massachusetts residents support medical aid in dying, according to a November 2019 Boston Globe-Suffolk University poll, including a majority of those surveyed across the demographic, ethnic, and geographic spectrum. 
• That’s why our lawmakers should pass the End of Life Options Act without delay.

[Name]

[Title, if applicable]

[Organization, if applicable]
[Street Address, for verification purposes only]

[City, State, Zip Code]

[Phone number, for verification purposes only]

[Email address, for verification purposes only]

[Website address, if applicable]

Most papers only publish letters to the editor in response to recent stories, so below are titles and links to them and letters to editor submission forms or email addresses.

1) Boston Globe: “Letters: Agonizing turns in the final stage of life,” October 2, 2020;
“New study confirms staggering racial disparities in COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts,” August 27, 2020  

Letter to Editor submission info: https://customerservice.globe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020652591-How-can-I-send-a-letter-to-the-editor-

2) Boston Herald: “40 Massachusetts cities and towns are now at high risk for coronavirus,” October 8, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.bostonherald.com/submit-letter/

3) The Telegram & Gazette: “Opinion/Letter: Massachusetts must provide end-of-life care options,” October 7, 2020 

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.telegram.com/opinion/letters

4) The Republican: “Most kids who died from COVID-19 in the US were children of color new CDC study finds, further highlighting racial disparities in pandemic,” Sept. 16, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2020/02/guidelines-for-submitting-a-letter-to-the-editor-to-masslivethe-republican.html

5) The Sun: “Front-line workers sound alarm on easing of coronavirus restrictions,” Sept. 30, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.lowellsun.com/author/letters-to-the-editor/

6) Cape Cod Times: “Second suspected COVID-19 related death in three days reported on Nantucket,” Oct. 6, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.capecodtimes.com/opinion/20191107/guidelines-for-letters-to-editor-guest-columns

7) The Patriot Ledger: “Pandemic has seniors rethinking living choices,” June 15, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.patriotledger.com/contact

8) The Eagle Tribune: “Boston University gets $1.5 million for antiracism research,” Oct. 1, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.eagletribune.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/

9) The Berkshire Eagle: “Racism declared a public health crisis by Human Rights Commission in Pittsfield,” July 28, 2020

Letters to Editor submission info: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/contact/