Sorry for the lag, but I’ve been working on offline issues for awhile.
The first thing I want to share with NDY readers is some of the media coverage, testimony, and more info from the really strong group of Massachusetts disability activists who have joined together in a coalition named Second Thoughts. As mentioned in the last blog entry, members of Second Thoughts testified on March 6 before the Massachusetts legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee in opposition to a ballot question legalizing assisted suicide.
WWLP, which covers Western Massachusetts, ran a story that focused on the testimony and opposition to assisted suicide at the hearing, click on video below to view:
The good news is that this news story focused on disability activists; the bad news is that comments from disability activists are short and not even the most truly representative of the arguments they made before the legislature that day.
Full testimony of Second Thoughts members John Kelly, Michael Muehe, Eileen Feldman and Denise Karuth can be accessed via their Testimony Page (there are links to text and pdf versions of testimony).
I recommend bookmarking Second Thoughts for the most up-to-date information on the Massachusetts battle on assisted suicide. We’ll share what the group is doing here, but most of the time it will appear at the Second Thoughts site first – and there’s a lot to check out on the site that I haven’t mentioned here. –Stephen Drake