Karen Schneiderman reconstructed her testimony from notes and memory – the following is a fairly accurate recounting of her testimony:
For the Boston Center for Independent Living
60 Temple Place 5th floor
Boston MA 02111Regarding House No. 1468
Assisted SuicideMy name is Karen Schneiderman, and I work for but am not presenting an official position of the Boston Center for Independent Living. I am a woman with a disability who lives in the state of Massachusetts and has deep distrust about the motives and needs to institute assisted suicide in the Commonwealth.
We live in a culture that does not value people with disabilities even when we are healthy. We are considered a financial burden and a frightening look at anyone’s potential future. Our lives are perceived as sad and lonely. As a productive woman, with two jobs, a Ph.D., married and living a good life, I resent this stereotype and I worry that I would be just the sort of person who might be a good “candidate” for assisted suicide were I terminally ill or suffering and unable to be cured of some additional illness or disability in addition to the one I was born with – Spina Bifida – the second most common genetic disability. The medical profession has at times been both a friend and an enemy to me, saving my life at birth and experimenting on me later in life.
This profession is a profit-driven institution that makes decisions based on financial as well as medical issues and were I to be in a situation where I were so sick that it became financially burdensome to the State, I suspect many physicians would support my decision to kill myself with their help if I were in a state of fear and helplessness. I can hope that family members will be around to help me through the depression and fear but one cannot be sure of such a thing. It is easy to see why in such a state I might decide with the “help” of the medical profession to choose death.
This is a deeply private decision, not one to be made with a doctor, even a doctor with scruples, because the entire culture in which we live already sees me and my sisters and brothers with disabilities as throw aways. I know there will come a time when I will feel the desire to end my life, as I suspect most people do at some point. As the daughter of a healthy 92 year-old man who chose to jump to his death in an act of suicide a decade ago, I know whatever drew him to it was not helped by the same culture that worships youth and puts up with elders, despite their value as human beings of any age.
I oppose assisted suicide at this point in history where people with disabilities are perceived has inherently less worthy than non-disabled people and I choose not to put the final piece of my fate in their hands. Not now, when our culture sees us through a prism of uselessness and dependency. That model is inaccurate now and I have no illusion that there will be a sea change in my lifetime, however long that is.
Thank you.
We will post others as they become available. If the documents are too long, we’ll post excerpts with a link to a document online. –Stephen Drake