This Is A Call To Conscience!
REVERSE THE AAS STATEMENT THAT THROWS OLD, ILL AND DISABLED PEOPLE OUT OF THE LIFEBOAT
On October 17, 2017, AAS issued a statement announcing that physician assisted suicide is not “suicide”. The Executive Summary states:
“The American Association of Suicidology recognizes that the practice of physician aid in dying, also called physician assisted suicide, Death with Dignity, and medical aid in dying, is distinct from the behavior that has been traditionally and ordinarily described as ‘suicide,’ the tragic event our organization works so hard to prevent. Although there may be overlap between the two categories, legal physician assisted deaths should not be considered cases of suicide and are therefore a matter outside the central focus of AAS.”
Welcome to your new sleeker AAS. For the first time, this organization has formally begun to narrow its mission – accomplished by declaring the suicides of some people to not be suicides at all. Sure, there’s a debate today. But what’s the point, really? The AAS position is already out. Shouldn’t this debate have happened last year?
Speaking of the Statement, we urge you to read it carefully. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you read:
- It’s claimed that there are strict safeguards mandating referral for psychological evaluation if “depression or other mental illness is [suspected of] playing a distorting role in the decision” by prescribing physicians – who are mostly untrained in these areas. To date, fewer than 5% of patients seeking assisted suicide have been referred for evaluation in Oregon. One patient not referred, Michael Freeland, had a diagnosis of less than 6 months to live. He also had a history of depression and multiple suicide attempts. He got his prescription, but luckily found medical and other help. He lived for two more years, during which he reestablished his relationship with his estranged daughter.
- The reasons people request assisted suicide – feelings of loss of autonomy, abilities, dignity, being a burden on others – are relationship issues that can be addressed by counseling, services and support.
- The statement asserts that – on average – deaths by assisted suicide or euthanasia shorten lives by only a few weeks. What the statement doesn’t reveal is that some people who don’t soon take the lethal dose in in Oregon outlive their 6-month terminal predictions every year. Moreover, “eligibility” has exploded in both Holland and Belgium. People with autism, depression, and elderly people “tired of living” are also candidates.
- For years, the main assisted suicide advocacy group in the US – Compassion & Choices (C&C) – has been promoting and romanticizing double suicides by elderly couples. They’ve done this in the promotion of VSED – Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking – and lately in legalized assisted suicide.
- You might also want to know that the courts have not agreed with C&C’s efforts to redefine assisted suicide.
None of this is surprising to disability advocates who have been following and opposing assisted suicide advocacy. The suicide prevention community has been determinedly silent when it comes to “aid in dying” – whether we’re talking about legalization efforts or hundreds of news stories about the Final Exit Network facilitating the suicides of people with nonterminal disabilities. The silence from your community can only be explained through some combination of moral cowardice, ageism, and ableism.
Lastly, you should recognize this is the beginning of a process of ceding control of important guidelines for your community to advocates of assisted suicide. The statement is mostly a list of talking points used by those groups.
Maybe that’s OK with you. We’re hoping it isn’t. Please embrace the idea that all suicides are preventable tragedies. Defining us – the ill, elderly, and disabled – out of your “area of concern” isn’t humane or rational. It’s devaluing and dehumanizing people who are already devalued and dehumanized by too many in our society.