On behalf of the Board of Directors of Not Dead Yet, we express profound sadness at the news that legendary ADAPT organizer, first ally of Not Dead Yet, and pivotal disability rights advocate, Bob Kafka has passed away at his Austin, Texas home on December 26, 2025. First, our deepest heartfelt condolences to Stephanie Thomas, Bob’s […]
Our incomparable disability rights champion, beloved colleague and friend. It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of NDY’s singularly dear colleague and incomparable disability rights champion, John Bryan Kelly, who passed away peacefully in Boston, this past Friday, November 14, 2025, at the age of 67. In spite of battling an […]
To the best of my knowledge, one of the last tasks Founder, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet (NDY), Diane Coleman completed, days before her sudden passing last November, was to watch Reid Davenport’s Life After. Diane intended to write a fulsome review. And although she could not publish her thoughts in […]
[Congressional Press Release:] Reps. Wenstrup and Correa Reintroduce Resolution on the Dangers of Physician Assisted Suicide Washington, May 23, 2024 Today, Reps. Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., (R-OH) and Lou Correa, (D-CA) introduced a resolution “expressing the sense of the Congress that assisted suicide puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm.” In 2019, […]
Today, Anita Cameron testified via online access to oppose Minnesota’s assisted suicide bill while John Kelly and Diane Coleman submitted written testimony to the MN House of Representatives Health Finance and Policy Committee. Below are excerpts from each and their names links to their full testimonies. Anita Cameron Research has documented Black, Asian, and Hispanic […]
[From August 28, 2023] Assisted suicide in NY a poor idea To the Editor: It’s ironic that Joel Freedman’s Aug. 14 essay promoting assisted suicide laws opens by noting the need to “strengthen the rights of nursing home residents and other care-dependent people.” People are too often dumped into nursing facilities by hospitals and sometimes, […]
[Author’s note: Readers may wonder why it’s taken a month for me to post my response to the federal district court ruling in the Shavelson case. I was hoping to be able to post it after it appeared as an op-ed in one of the California newspaper outlets I pitch it to, but, alas, NDY’s […]
A June 30th Washington, D.C. news story, Medical aid in dying: States debate right-to-die laws, included a photo from a Not Dead Yet protest held at a press conference held by assisted suicide proponents which was covered in this blog in early May (Disability Activists Crash Pro-Assisted Suicide Press Conference). Though giving more space and first […]
A recent news story on the New York assisted suicide bill included a one-minute interview with NDY’s founder and President/CEO, though the full story began and ended with a much longer video provided by the national organization that supports these bills. Here are the NDY quotes: “These policies are especially a danger to people with […]
Disability advocacy organizations NDY, DREDF and United Spinal partnered with the Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) to hold a press briefing on the Shavelson v. CA Department of Health Care Services case heard on April 14 in the federal District Court of Northern California. Video of the press briefing is available on PRAF’s Facebook page […]
