amazongoddess
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- Posted: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 14:04:02 +0000
In general I believe a person should have a right to choose the timing of their death in cases of terminal illness. Here is a PBS discussion of the Oregon Right to Die initiative: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec98/suicide_11-24.html
However, I work in the disabiity field, and there is a great deal of controversy in the disability field over "right to die" measures. The feeling is that people with disabilities [and 83% of us will have a disability at some time in our lives] can be pressured to end their life because others [family, friends, physicians] may convince them that a life with the disability is not worth living.
See "Not Dead Yet" http://www.notdeadyet.org/pressrel.htmlDisability
However, I work in the disabiity field, and there is a great deal of controversy in the disability field over "right to die" measures. The feeling is that people with disabilities [and 83% of us will have a disability at some time in our lives] can be pressured to end their life because others [family, friends, physicians] may convince them that a life with the disability is not worth living.
Quote:
"It's the ultimate form of discrimination to offer people with disabilities help to die without having offered real options to live." -Diane Coleman, founder of Not Dead Yet http://www.notdeadyet.org/
See "Not Dead Yet" http://www.notdeadyet.org/pressrel.htmlDisability
Quote:
Activists Declare WAR on Kevorkian
and the "Right To Die" Epidemic
A new national disability civil rights group, Not Dead Yet, will take to the streets of Lansing Michigan June 21-23. Not Dead Yet activists, many of them wheelchair users, will confront the infamous Dr. Jack Kevorkian as well as two national gatherings of medical ethicists.
"Many people believe they'd rather be dead than be like us," says Maria Matzik, a Not Dead Yet member from Dayton Ohio. Matzik uses a ventilator to breathe. "If one of us gets depressed and feels suicidal, people think that's rational. They don't respond to the underlying personal problems at the root of suicide. Now, with Kevorkian's popularity rising, people like me can't afford to get depressed. Some doctor might just help us die."
Jack Kevorkian told a judge in 1990, "Anybody who's got a terrible crippling disease and is not depressed is abnormal."
Kevorkian has also said that "the voluntary self -elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives, taken collectively, can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare,"
"It's a matter of life or death," according to Not Dead Yet national organizer Diane Coleman. "The Right to Die hysteria in America results in extermination without representation, We must be heard. We must resist."
Coleman, who uses a wheelchair, cites studies showing that physicians are not trained about living with significant disability. "They make the same negative assumptions about the quality of life of disabled people as the rest of society does." Coleman gave similar testimony at recent congressional hearings.
Not Dead Yet fears that recent federal circuit court decisions have elevated assisted suicide to a constitutional right. Not Dead Yet wants to know why this new constitutional right is available only to a select few - people with disabilities and chronic or terminal illnesses. If death is one of the blessings of freedom, why isn't every American entitled to death on demand?
Not Dead Yet organizer Woody Osburn is a quadriplegic who works at the Pennsylvania Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in Harrisburg, PA. "I take it real personal," he says, "when the death specialists say my life isn't worth living. I don't want their pity. I sure don't want what they call mercy!"
During just one year in the Netherlands - where physician-assisted suicide is widely practiced - 5,941 people were killed by their doctors WITHOUT their request or even their permission. Another 8,643 died when medical treatment was withdrawn from them WITHOUT their consent. [We cite the Dutch government's own official study, the Remmlink Report, published in 1990.]
At least a dozen of the 29 people Kevorkian has killed were not terminally ill. A Michigan court acquitted Kevorkian two weeks ago of charges resulting from his assistance at the deaths of two women who were not otherwise dying.
Several well-known Right to Die cases involved people with disabilities who despaired when threatened with placement in nursing homes. They could have lived independently with home. and community-based supports. They - and 2.4 million other disabled Americans - have been consigned to nursing homes because in-home supports are so limited. We want to live - in freedom.
"Please understand. We don't want anyone to suffer," says Diane Coleman. "We believe that disabled people and sick people deserve to have their health care needs met, including pain management and in-home support services that are often denied.
"The failings of our health care system are not a justification for killing. This Right To Die epidemic is based on society's extreme prejudice against people with disabilities - a prejudice that most of the experts won't even acknowledge, much less try to overcome.
"But we're not dead yet and we will resist."
and the "Right To Die" Epidemic
A new national disability civil rights group, Not Dead Yet, will take to the streets of Lansing Michigan June 21-23. Not Dead Yet activists, many of them wheelchair users, will confront the infamous Dr. Jack Kevorkian as well as two national gatherings of medical ethicists.
"Many people believe they'd rather be dead than be like us," says Maria Matzik, a Not Dead Yet member from Dayton Ohio. Matzik uses a ventilator to breathe. "If one of us gets depressed and feels suicidal, people think that's rational. They don't respond to the underlying personal problems at the root of suicide. Now, with Kevorkian's popularity rising, people like me can't afford to get depressed. Some doctor might just help us die."
Jack Kevorkian told a judge in 1990, "Anybody who's got a terrible crippling disease and is not depressed is abnormal."
Kevorkian has also said that "the voluntary self -elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives, taken collectively, can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare,"
"It's a matter of life or death," according to Not Dead Yet national organizer Diane Coleman. "The Right to Die hysteria in America results in extermination without representation, We must be heard. We must resist."
Coleman, who uses a wheelchair, cites studies showing that physicians are not trained about living with significant disability. "They make the same negative assumptions about the quality of life of disabled people as the rest of society does." Coleman gave similar testimony at recent congressional hearings.
Not Dead Yet fears that recent federal circuit court decisions have elevated assisted suicide to a constitutional right. Not Dead Yet wants to know why this new constitutional right is available only to a select few - people with disabilities and chronic or terminal illnesses. If death is one of the blessings of freedom, why isn't every American entitled to death on demand?
Not Dead Yet organizer Woody Osburn is a quadriplegic who works at the Pennsylvania Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in Harrisburg, PA. "I take it real personal," he says, "when the death specialists say my life isn't worth living. I don't want their pity. I sure don't want what they call mercy!"
During just one year in the Netherlands - where physician-assisted suicide is widely practiced - 5,941 people were killed by their doctors WITHOUT their request or even their permission. Another 8,643 died when medical treatment was withdrawn from them WITHOUT their consent. [We cite the Dutch government's own official study, the Remmlink Report, published in 1990.]
At least a dozen of the 29 people Kevorkian has killed were not terminally ill. A Michigan court acquitted Kevorkian two weeks ago of charges resulting from his assistance at the deaths of two women who were not otherwise dying.
Several well-known Right to Die cases involved people with disabilities who despaired when threatened with placement in nursing homes. They could have lived independently with home. and community-based supports. They - and 2.4 million other disabled Americans - have been consigned to nursing homes because in-home supports are so limited. We want to live - in freedom.
"Please understand. We don't want anyone to suffer," says Diane Coleman. "We believe that disabled people and sick people deserve to have their health care needs met, including pain management and in-home support services that are often denied.
"The failings of our health care system are not a justification for killing. This Right To Die epidemic is based on society's extreme prejudice against people with disabilities - a prejudice that most of the experts won't even acknowledge, much less try to overcome.
"But we're not dead yet and we will resist."