From the press release:
MONTREAL, May 16, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ – Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet will join Québécers who oppose euthanasia on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at noon on the Plains of Abraham.
TVNDY is a progressive, non-religious project to unite and give voice to the disability opposition to euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other discriminatory end-of-life practices.
According to Hasbrouck, Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet will highlight several points
- People with disabilities are the population most directly affected by assisted suicide and euthanasia.
- Disability discrimination is a major factor behind the push for such laws, and the causes of suicidal feelings among people with disabilities.
- Such laws create a double standard, where non-disabled people who express suicidal feelings are given services to prevent a suicide, while people with disabilities with similar feelings are allowed, even helped to kill themselves.
- Financial and social pressures, including abuse, can drive elders and people with disabilities to suicide.
- Québecers have rejected capital punishment because of the possibility that even one person might be wrongfully convicted and killed.
- Lack of access to palliative care and home-based personal care services controlled by the individual can drive people toward suicide. People with disabilities should not be sacrificed to poor policy choices.
- People already have the right to refuse treatment, make advance directives and appoint a substitute decision maker.
- Until people with disabilities enjoy full safety and equality in all facets of community life, no amount of safeguards can prevent misapplication of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The event is co-sponsored by Vivre dans la dignité, the Rassemblement Québecois contre l’euthanasie and Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet.
SOURCE: Toujours Vivant – Not Dead Yet
For further information:Amy E. Hasbrouck (450-921-3057)
Link to Speech to be delivered by Amy E. Hasbrouck, and an excerpt:
Hello, my name is Amy Hasbrouck. I am the director of Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet. I have been a disability rights advocate for more than 30 years, and I’ve been involved in the disability rights opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide for 15 years.
Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet is an progressive, non-religious group of people with disabilities who oppose euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other discriminatory end-of-life practices.
There are many reasons people with disabilities should be worried about euthanasia. First, nearly everyone who asks for euthanasia has a disability, meaning a physical, mental or sensory impairment that limits their daily activities. This is true whether or not the person has a terminal illness. As such, people with disabilities are the population most directly affected by the current proposal to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Reports from the state of Oregon where assisted suicide is legal, show that people ask for assisted suicide not because of pain, but for reasons relating to the onset of disability. They talk about losing control and independence, feeling like a burden, no longer being able to do things they enjoyed, or losing dignity.
These problems aren’t caused by disability, but by discrimination. It is discrimination that disables a person who has an impairment. And there are many kinds of discrimination. It begins with beliefs.
Every one of us with a disability has heard someone say: “I’d rather be dead than be like you.” Disability is seen as a tragedy, and euthanasia is seen as a gentle way to end a tragic story. This belief is so common that when someone becomes disabled, she herself may believe her life is a tragedy whose only escape is death.
Read the rest of the remarks here.
Amy E. Hasbrouck “has been a disability rights activist for more than 30 years. Ms. Hasbrouck’s activism combines her personal experience with congenital and acquired disability with a cross-oppression analysis gained through involvement in the women’s rights, anti-war, LGBT, and other social justice movements. She worked in architectural access and the independent living before graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in 1997. Her subsequent legal work focused on health and mental health law and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ms. Hasbrouck has focused her writing and research skills on abuse of children and adults with disabilities, producing a groundbreaking report on prosecution and sentencing of parents who kill their disabled children in 1997. This study led to her involvement with Not Dead Yet, the disability rights-based opposition to assisted suicide, euthanasia, and other end-of-life practices that discriminate against people with disabilities which continues to this day. Ms. Hasbrouck has been a board member of Not Dead Yet in the U.S. since 2000. She has had several articles and op-eds published in newspapers in Canada and elsewhere. She is currently Director of Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet, a project of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities to expand the reach of CCD’s ending of life ethics committee. She lives with her husband, dog and two cats in Québec, Canada. You can reach Amy at amy.hasbrouck@tv-ndy.ca”