Last Sunday, the Boston Globe Magazine helped many Bay Staters learn more about the proposed Death with Dignity Act in Massachusetts. The magazine's feature, "Dying wishes", by Scott Helman contains a personal story about why two Massachusetts advocates volunteering their time in support of the ballot measure, outlines the facts of the measure, and highlights the history of Death with Dignity laws in other states.

Perhaps the most touching story from the article is that of Heather Clish. When her parents were visiting Heather in Massachusetts, her father was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor—the same type of cancer Senator Ted Kennedy had. An Oregonian, Heather's father knew of his state's Death with Dignity Act, and chose to request the prescribed medication while he received palliative care and his family enrolled him in hospice care.

When his pain and suffering became too great for the doctors to relieve, he decided to take the medication. Heather and her sisters were able to travel to Oregon to be with her dad in his final moments:

Dignity 2012 and the proposed Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act took another step forward toward the November ballot yesterday through the state's indirect initiative process.

As Peg Sandeen reported on our blog earlier, Dignity 2012 gathered 79,626 qualified signatures which were certified by the Commonwealth in December 2011. The initiative was then introduced to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and assigned to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Yesterday, the Joint Committee held a hearing for this initiative as well as 56 other proposed laws. As mandated by the Massachusetts Constitution, this step was really more of a formality in the process.

The possible actions by the state legislature are:

"We need a cultural shift. Oregon is just a start."

I heard this from a person I chat with periodically on Twitter. It's true, Oregon is just the start.

Oregon's law's been tested at every level:

Every state has its own process for passing laws. Among those which allow voters to directly debate and decide on state law through the ballot initiative process, there's even more variability in how an initiative ends up in front of the voters in a general election. There are indirect initiatives which must first go through a state legislature and direct initiatives which go from signature gathering to the ballot. Some states have a referendum process where a state legislature can place a proposed piece of legislation in front of the voters, and others allow initiatives only for constitutional amendments.

The road to the November 2012 ballot in Massachusetts is a particularly winding one, and I checked in with Dignity 2012 to learn more about where they're at in the process and what challenges are ahead. I learned Massachusetts has an indirect initiative process, so after gathering the requisite number of signatures, the initiative goes to the Massachusetts legislature.