NOND Statement Opposing Physician Assisted Suicide September 2016

The National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND), a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Illinois in 2003, strongly opposes Physician Assisted Suicide. Too often people with disabilities and those with chronic debilitating illness are entrenched in a slippery slope of negative perceptions where their lives may not be valued and respected; as every life should be. NOND believes that nurses are dedicated to provide compassionate care that respects the rights of patients but upholds the standards of our profession in the presence of chronic illness, disability and at the end of life. The solution to resolve illness is NOT for physicians to assist our patients to choose death.