Seven disability advocates representing national and New Jersey state organizations planned to testify at a state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Thursday, February 7, beginning at 1:00 p.m., but only two were allowed to do so. Unlike NJ Committee hearings on the issue in previous years, the hearing was stopped at 2:30, cutting off many witnesses who had signed up to testify.
In an even more shocking political dirty trick, nj.com reports that last minute Committee reassignments substituted two legislators who would vote in favor of the bill for two Democrats who had previously voted against it.
[State Senate President Stephen] “Sweeney and Senate sponsor Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, do not sit on the health committee but participated instead of Sens. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, and Fred Madden, D-Gloucester, who voted against the bill when it was up for a committee vote in 2016.”
The two disability rights witnesses who were permitted to testify were Dawn Parkot who founded the Climb Organization and Lindsay Tuman on behalf of the DAWN Center for Independent Living. For Ms. Parkot’s testimony, go here, and for Ms. Tuman’s, go here.
Dawn Parkot’s brilliant op-ed also appeared in a leading New Jersey newspaper, very well worth reading: Here’s why a person with disabilities doesn’t want N.J. to have a law that allows people to kill themselves. [The paper’s editor gave it a misleading title, since the bill allows people to assist suicide; it’s not illegal to kill oneself – these bills immunize other people for assisting.]
Disability advocates who did not get to speak for even as little as two minutes, some of whom traveled there to represent national disability organizations, were:
- Kate Blisard, New Jersey Not Dead Yet (testimony here)
- Anita Cameron, Not Dead Yet
- Kathryn Carroll, Center for Disability Rights
- Erick Jones, ADAPT
- Alex Thompson, United Spinal Assn.
More of the excluded testimony to be posted soon.
The Committee proceeded to vote 6-to-3 for the bill to proceed to the Senate floor. If the two legislators who previously voted against the bill had not been substituted out at the last minute and had voted as before, the vote would have been 5-to-4 against advancing the bill out of Committee.
Not allowing the targeted people of suicide to fight for their lives and the lives of others is a form of bigotry. Were slaves allowed to speak for them selves or to vote? No, because this would go against the interest of those benefiting from slavery. The slaves were not considered persons. The same thing is happening here. The people that this Euthanasia bill would target are not even allowed to speak on behalf of themselves. There is something very wrong here! Let them speak and Vote!