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Ballot Questions

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Election 2012: State Ballot Question Results

Voters made decisions on car repairs, assisted suicide and medical marijuana in the statewide election.

  Question 1: Right to Repair Voters approved the “Right to Repair” ballot question, which would give consumers more choices when fixing a car in today's election. According to numbers on boston.com, 85 percent of voters approved the question, with 51 percent of the state reporting at 10:15 p.m. The initiative requires automakers to make computer software codes for repairs more accessible to independent repair shops and car owners by 2015. But in July, state legislators devised a compromise that would give carmakers until 2018 to comply with the new law, according to a Boston Globe report. By approving Question 1, voters trumped that compromise and enacted the “Right to Repair” act as written on the ballot. “Voters sent a clear message to …

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Diana

9:26 am on Saturday, November 17, 2012

Whine whine whine. But hey, it's your free time. Do with it as you will.   more ›

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Tell Us: Should Physicians Be Allowed to End Terminally Ill Patients' Lives?

Votes will be asked in the November election to vote on Question 2, which if passed, would allow physicians to prescribe medicine to end a terminally ill patient's life.

As part of the November election, voters will have a chance to move in favor or against a question regarding medication for terminally ill patients. The proposed law would allow a physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient’s request, to end that patient’s life, according to Secretary of State William F. Galvin's website. To qualify, a patient would have to be an adult resident who is determined, medically, to be mentally capable of making and communicating health care decisions; be diagnosed by attending and consulting physicians as having an incurable, irreversible disease that will, within reasonable medical judgment, cause death within six months; and voluntarily expresses a wish to die and …

Amanda Smith

10:06 am on Sunday, November 4, 2012

In reading these posts I have yet to see anyone address the patient's rights. I have worked in Hospice for 8 years and watched many patients and families suffer. One thing that all healthcare workers, patients, and families have in common is the idea of patient choice. As healthcare workers we are obligated to be patient advocates. However, it seems that most practitioners are circumstantial …   more ›

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