Category Archives: bioethics

ADAPT’s Bob Kafka Interviews Diane Coleman About NDY & COVID-19 On Barrier Free Futures

ADAPT’s Bob Kafka is a long time activist with Not Dead Yet, and is the person who actually suggested our name, based on a running gag in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The interview excerpted below was broadcast on April 4, 2020 and the audio is archived here. Below is a long excerpt of … Continue reading ADAPT’s Bob Kafka Interviews Diane Coleman About NDY & COVID-19 On Barrier Free Futures

As the Threat of Triage Grows, Disability Rights Advocacy Is Needed More Than Ever

On Friday, April 3rd, six leading disability rights attorneys and their respective organizations issued a statement entitled Applying HHS’s Guidance for States and Health Care Providers on Avoiding Disability-Based Discrimination in Treatment Rationing. The statement, which helps to interpret the federal bulletin issued a week earlier, was joined by over 90 organizations, including NDY. One … Continue reading As the Threat of Triage Grows, Disability Rights Advocacy Is Needed More Than Ever

DREDF Brief: The Illegality of Medical Rationing on the Basis of Disability

Huge admiration and gratitude to our colleagues at DREDF for issuing a document entitled Preventing Discrimination in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients: The Illegality of Medical Rationing on the Basis of Disability. It’s directed to “lawmakers and providers of health care, education, transportation, housing, and other critical services.” The 2nd opening paragraph explains: In the … Continue reading DREDF Brief: The Illegality of Medical Rationing on the Basis of Disability

COVID-19 Reveals A Deadly Failure of Priorities

With the looming and imminent threat of insufficient hospital and ICU beds, medical equipment and healthcare staff, I found myself recalling an old favorite TV show from my college years. MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) created both comedy and drama around the reality of having three operating room beds in an army tent on the … Continue reading COVID-19 Reveals A Deadly Failure of Priorities

United Spinal Assn. Helped Fight A Futility Judgment And Won!

The hospital may not have called it a “futility judgment” when they pushed Chris Dunn to go into hospice as an alternative to spinal cord injury rehabilitation, but it’s hard to see it any other way. Here’s an extended excerpt from United Spinal Association’s New Mobility article “Refusing To Die: The Chris Dunn Story“: By … Continue reading United Spinal Assn. Helped Fight A Futility Judgment And Won!