Victoria Reggie Kennedy, wife of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, came out against a Massachusetts ballot question that would allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication for terminally ill patients.

In an opinion piece in the Cape Cod Times on Saturday, Kennedy said ballot Question 2 would turn her husband’s vision of health care “on its head by asking us to endorse patient suicide — not patient care — as our public policy for dealing with pain and the financial burdens of care at the end of life.”