John Kelly, a Great Friend to Many, has Died. Memorial Service to be Held in January.

Thursday, November 20, 2025

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of NDY’s singularly dear colleague and incomparable disability rights champion, John Bryan Kelly, (pictured here) who passed away peacefully in Boston, this past Friday, November 14, 2025, at the age of 67.  

In spite of battling an unrelenting infection in hospital since the latter part of September, John’s legendary spirit remained on display throughout, communicating in winks and smiles until his peaceful passing.

As Communications Director and previously as Regional Director for Not Dead Yet, as Executive Director for Second Thoughts Massachusetts, and as the Chair of Boston Disability Advisory Commission, John’s expert knowledge and unwavering dedication to his work for disability rights motivated all who worked with or alongside him to do the same, and to keep going when the going got tough, which it often has. 

With the Kelly family’s permission, a brief excerpt from the forthcoming obituary sheds more light on John’s life and legacy:

New England Foliage Ahead of Schedule

This year, peak foliage is arriving a week or two ahead of schedule, with leaves changing early in response to recent weather stressors.

Read to find out the best timing for your area.

Massachusetts Aid in Dying Bill

PROPOSED CHAPTER 201G

Section 1. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

“Adult”, an individual who is 18 years of age or older.

“Aid in Dying”, the medical practice of a physician prescribing lawful medication to a qualified patient, which the patient may choose to self-administer to bring about a peaceful death.

[The above paragraph states that a patient "may choose to self-administer" medication "to bring about a peaceful death."  The paragraph does not, however, "require" that a patient self-administer medication to bring about his or her peaceful death.  

Deaths may also not be peaceful due to a patient's unwillingness to consume and/or be injected with a lethal dose meant to kill him or her.]

For Assistance in Dying, Please Press 1

Liz Carr’s (pictured right) documentary, “Better Off Dead?”, continues making a difference, serving as a wake up call about the dangers assisted suicide laws pose for people with disabilities. A Boston Globe columnist noted this week:

The most chilling detail in “Better Off Dead?” a new BBC documentary by the English actress and comedian Liz Carr, is an automated telephone message. …

Thank you for calling. The Ontario Medical Assistance in Dying Care Coordination Service is designed to provide information about end of life options in Ontario and referrals for Medical Assistance in Dying. If you would like to speak with an adviser to access the service or get more information, please press 1.

Massachusetts Disability Rights Advocates Available for Interviews

Second Thoughts Director John B. Kelly [pictured right] says,

“Legalized assisted suicide is less about pain and more about fear of increasing disability and dependence on others. We support equal suicide prevention services, and yet individual suicide isn’t illegal. Our bottom line: keep your assisted suicide away from vulnerable people and our unequal and broken healthcare system.” John is commonly referred to as “paralyzed from the neck down,” which makes him eligible, in Canada and elsewhere, for lethal injection. Contact for Mr. Kelly 617-952-3302.

Second Thoughts member Pamela Daly says, “Bills like S.1331 have the potential to cause great harm to marginalized people like me and must not pass. Its safeguards are ridiculously easy to get around, and in other states that passed these bills, proponents soon got busy weakening them.” Ms. Daly 617-543-7868

Second Thoughts Massachusetts Protest Gains Important News Coverage

Second Thoughts Massachusetts led a peaceful counter demonstration at a gathering of assisted suicide proponents held at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, June 5th.

Seated: John Kelly, Randi Shea, Brian Shea. Standing: Chip Guiney, Glacier Gray, Ashlinn Parnell

In addition to those featured in the photo, others who participated included Ian McIntosh and Jessica Rodgers of the Patients Rights Action Fund, Harry Weissman, Director of Advocacy for Disability Policy Consortium, as well as Gabriell Paye, Jon Ball, John Robinson and Dr. Rich Florentine.

The State House News Service (SHNS) provided unusually balanced coverage of the disability led demonstration against the assisted suicide bill currently before the Massachusetts legislature.

A Short History of Assisted Suicide; Not Dead Yet; Is Canadian Style Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Coming to California?

By Diane Coleman 

A California State Senator, Catherine Blakespear, introduced a bill (SB 1196) earlier this month that resembles Canada’s law and, here in the U.S., reflects the broad agenda openly espoused by the Hemlock Society and Final Exit Network. The agenda of these organizations has long included eligibility for people with non-terminal conditions and disabilities.

When Not Dead Yet activists joined me in attending Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian’s trial in the late 1990s, Hemlock’s executive director Faye Girsh was there supporting him. Two thirds of his body count consisted of people with non-terminal disabilities. Girsh also advocated eligibility for people with cognitive disabilities and dementia, with or without consent. Leaders also advocated active euthanasia and “mercy killing.”

Anita Cameron Testifies In Person Before Joint Committee on Public Health

Nationally renowned disability activist Anita Cameron testified at a hearing this morning before the Joint Committee on Public Health of the Massachusetts legislature, in opposition to a proposed bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide.

Witnesses were given two minutes each. This is her testimony:

I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide. I am here in opposition to H. 2246 & S. 1331, the End of Life Options Act

These laws are dangerous because though they are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. My mother, while living in Washington state, was determined to be terminal and was placed in hospice.

She didn’t die, but lived almost 12 years!

Please vote NO.

Press Release: Not Dead Yet Opposed to End of Life Options Act

Nationally renowned disability activist Anita Cameron testified at a hearing this morning before the Joint Committee on Public Health of the Massachusetts legislature in opposition to a proposed law to legalize assisted suicide. Witnesses were given only two minutes each. This is her written testimony: 

I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide. I am here in opposition to H. 2246/S. 1331, the End of Life Options Act, I live with intractable pain. I have multiple disabilities. Two are degenerative. One will take my life. One of my conditions, though chronic, can become terminal if I lose access to treatment. 

Major Assisted Suicide Win in Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

By Barbara Lyons

We are thrilled to announce that a favorable decision was reached in Kligler v. Healy by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts which rejected the notion that there is a right to assisted suicide in the Massachusetts Constitution.  

Here is a key phrase from the decision:

Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life decisions, after careful consideration, we conclude that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights does not reach so far as to protect physician-assisted suicide.3 We conclude as well that the law of manslaughter may prohibit physician-assisted suicide, and does so, without offending constitutional protections.

The Legislature Should Reject S1384, Which Despite Its Name Does Not Provide Dying People "End-of-life Options."

By John Kelly

Over the last 15 years, the Massachusetts's legislature and, in 2012, the people of the state, have wisely rejected the legalization of assisted suicide as too dangerous. The legislature should likewise reject S1384, which despite its name does not provide dying people "end-of-life options."

The tragic reality is that under legalized assisted suicide, some people's lives will be ended without their true consent, through misdiagnosis, persuasion, coercion and abuse, insurance denials and depression. No safeguards have ever been enacted or proposed that can prevent this outcome, which can never be undone.

NPR reported five years ago that up to 20% of people who enter hospice outlive their six months prognosis. In Oregon, 4% of people who enter the assisted suicide program are alive at the end of six months. The difference between 4% and 20% is the percent of people and their families who may have lost months, years, and in some cases decades of meaningful life.

EPC - USA Files Brief to Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Kligler Assisted Suicide Case

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Directive, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In January 2020 the assisted suicide lobby appealed a  Massachusetts Superior court decision which found that there was no right to assisted suicide in Massachusetts. 

Recently the Massachusetts Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and yesterday, EPC-USA submitted a brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Court in this case. 

The case known as Kligler concerns Dr Roger Kligler, who is living with prostate cancer and seeking death by assisted suicide and Dr Alan Schoenberg, who is willing to prescribe lethal drugs for Kligler to die by assisted suicide.  Kligler who claimed to be terminally ill when launching the case in 2016 remains alive today.

Kligler and Schoenberg are arguing that doctors cannot be prosecuted for prescribing lethal drugs for assisted suicide to a competent terminally ill person under the Massachusetts state constitution.

John Kelly Testifies At Massachusetts Health Equity Task Force Public Hearing

http://notdeadyet.org/2020/09/john-kelly-testifies-at-massachusetts-health-equity-task-force-public-hearing.html

On Wednesday, September 16, a public hearing was held by the Health Equity Task Force of the Massachusetts Public Health Committee. The legislative website stated that “[t]he virtual hearing is to receive testimony from the public on findings and recommendations that address health disparities for underserved or underrepresented populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, pursuant to the Health Equity Task Force established by section 2 of Chapter 93 of the Acts of 2020.”

John Kelly testified on behalf of Second Thoughts Massachusetts:

Thank you. My name is John Kelly and I am the director of Second Thoughts MA: disability rights advocates against assisted suicide. We also oppose policies, actions, and media that demean the lives of disabled people, such as the state’s Crisis Standards of Care and lack of attention to suicide prevention services for disabled people.

Bill Timing Is "Wrong"

To view full press release on Not Dead Yet, click here                        

John Kelly

Second Thoughts Massachusetts issues the following statement in opposition to the favorable report given by the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health to Bill S.2745 (replacing prior versions), legislation that would legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts.

Assisted suicide legislation sends a message of ‘better dead than disabled’ while completely immunizing doctors, heirs, and caregivers who can encourage or even engineer a person’s death without fear of prosecution,” said Second Thoughts Director John B. Kelly.

Massachusetts Euthanasia Bills Have Reportedly Moved Out of Committee

State House

According to unconfirmed sources, the Massachusetts "End of Life Options Act," seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, has advanced out of the Joint Committee on Public Health to the Healthcare Finance Committee (S. 1208/H. 1926).

To learn more about problems with the Act, please see the legal/policy analysis below. If you have further information as to the exact status of the bills, please write me at margaretdore @ margaretdore.com  Thank you.

Margaret Dore, Esq.

Disability Group Welcomes Ruling Against Right to Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

To view whole article, click here.

John Kelly, Second Thoughts

Boston, Mass., Jan 14, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- Second Thoughts Massachusetts, a disability rights group, has praised a recent ruling that there is not a right to assisted suicide in the state's law or its constitution.

In a decision dated Dec. 31, 2019, Justice Mary Ames of the Suffolk Superior Court ruled that physicians who prescribe lethal medication for assisted suicide in Massachusetts can be prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, but that physicians may provide information and advice on assisted suicide to terminally ill, competent adults.

“We are gratified that the court reaffirmed the law against assisted suicide, and referred the matter to the legislature where lawmaking belongs. Disability rights advocates will continue to press the legislature that assisted suicide is just too dangerous,” John Kelly, director of Second Thoughts, commented Jan. 13.

Reject End of Life Option Act, H.1926 and S.1208

Click here to view pdf version.

I. INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.[1] The proposed bills seek to legalize “aid in dying,” a traditional euphemism for active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.[2]

Most states reject these practices.[3] Other states have strengthened their laws against them.[4] If enacted, the bills will apply to people with years or decades to live. Individuals with money, meaning the middle class and above, will be especially at risk. I urge you to reject the proposed bills.

Massachusetts Court Upholds Manslaughter Conviction for Woman Who Assisted Boyfriend's Suicide

Conrad Roy 

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Massachusetts High Court upheld the voluntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter for assisting the suicide of Conrad Roy who was 18 at the time of his death. Carter, who was 17 at the time of the death, was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

"Death with Dignity" Collapses Under Scrutiny

John Kelly

Click here to read published version.

I write to respond to the oped by John Berkowitz and three Western Massachusetts legislators in support of assisted suicide bill H.1994 (Eagle, Sept. 11).

Unsolvable problems with assisted suicide include the fact that terminal diagnoses are often wrong. Studies show that between 13 percent and 20 percent of people so diagnosed are not dying, and may live years or even decades longer. As examples, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy lived a full year longer than his terminal diagnosis of two to four months, while Florence resident John Norton credits the unavailability of assisted suicide for decades of good life after a mistaken prognosis.

Prosecutors argue why Michelle Carter's texting suicide conviction should not be overturned

Michelle Carter

To view full article, click here

Bristol County Prosecutors have filed their response to the appeal of Michelle Carter, arguing that the Plainville woman was rightfully convicted of involuntary manslaughter for pressuring her boyfriend Conrad Roy III into killing himself.

Roy died in 2014 after he turned on a gas-powered water pump in his truck and allowed the cabin to fill with carbon monoxide, following a lengthy battle with depression.

But police found text messages on Carter's phone that led them to believe it was no simple suicide.