Dear Mr. Clooney, We, the undersigned national disability rights organizations, urge you to use your platform to advance disability justice and to defend the rights of people with disabilities against the inherent discrimination and dangers of assisted suicide legislation. For the reasons set forth below, we urge you to reconsider the impact of your involvement. […]
Introduction Assisted suicide is often presented as a compassionate choice for those experiencing unbearable suffering. However, as someone who has navigated life’s challenges as a disability rights advocate and someone who was once confined to a nursing home, I see a troubling oversight in this narrative. It fails to consider the systemic barriers that prevent […]
By Meghan Schrader* Over and over again assisted suicide proponents claim that disabled people who oppose assisted suicide are a “vocal minority.” For instance, American euthanasia advocate Thaddeus Mason Pope ridiculously wrote on X that “millions” of disabled people want the right to have “MAiD.” Well, it’s not true. Assisted suicide, even in its more […]
[Editor’s Note: This Guest Blog is from Stephen Mendelsohn, one of the leaders of Second Thoughts Connecticut.] This is likely a first from the mainstream suicide prevention community: The Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board (CTSAB) recognizes that legalizing assisted suicide encourages people with disabilities to commit suicide. Here’s the relevant excerpt from the State of Connecticut Suicide […]
From the press release: MONTREAL, May 16, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ – Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet will join Québécers who oppose euthanasia on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at noon on the Plains of Abraham. TVNDY is a progressive, non-religious project to unite and give voice to the disability opposition to euthanasia, assisted suicide, and other discriminatory […]
This op-ed was published in the Sunday, April 7 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It’s written by Selene dePackh, who is an artist and writer. She’s also autistic. dePakh’s op-ed describes the reality that many of us are all too aware of, but sharing it with a broad audience. For whatever reason, the online comments […]
Before I start with the specifics, here’s the short version – due to the overwhelming response of disability activists and allies, things changed for the better in terms of communication and setting an agenda for surgery – placement of a feeding tube that will hopefully prevent the frequent bouts Amanda Baggs has had with aspiration […]
Below is an embedded video. It’s an interview of disability rights activist/advocate/scholar/author Norm Kunc. He was with other anti-assisted suicide/euthanasia protesters in Vancouver yesterday. A trancript of the interview is provided below video. I transcribed it myself, so I cannot guarantee it’s error-free, but it’s at worst pretty darn close to verbatim. Norm Kunc: Well, […]
Rochester Disability Community Remembers Disabled Victims of Domestic Violence, Deaf Victims of Euthanasia as Part of National Mourning Day As part of a nation-wide Day of Mourning, local disability rights advocates will be holding a memorial service this Friday called “Remembering Lives Taken” to honor the lives of disabled people murdered by their families and […]
Bill Peace, who writes the Bad Cripple blog and is one of our new board members at Not Dead Yet, has a new commentary out in the Bioethics Forum at the Hastings Center website. Here’s an excerpt from the article: Belgian twins, Eddie and Marc Verbessem, were euthanized by lethal injection at Brussels University Hospital […]
