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 […]
Access Press in Minnesota recently carried two excellent articles by disability advocates written in response to an earlier article by Marianne Turnbull, who is seriously ill with ovarian cancer, in support of an assisted suicide bill. Kathy Ware is an RN and parent of an adult son with disabilities. Here’s an excerpt from her article: […]
ASSISTED SUICIDE What can seem like dignity can turn out to be anything but I sympathize with Bobbi Jacobsen (“I have ALS, and I hope for a dignified death,” Opinion Exchange, Sept. 24). Like her, I became severely disabled as an adult. But I oppose assisted suicide: It’s too dangerous. Assisted suicide can look appealing from […]
Good news! Following intervention by attorneys, the Minnesota hospital that we previously reported had planned to stop providing oxygen to a woman with lung cancer decided to follow her wishes to continue treatment. This goes to show, as so many people with disabilities have experienced, that when there’s a power imbalance operating against you, get legal/advocate […]
[Editor’s Note: Following the hearing, the bill was tabled until next year. The following news coverage quoted disability advocates: Doctor-assisted suicide proposal tabled after emotional hearing (Star Tribune, 3/17/16); Minnesota’s assisted-suicide bill withdrawn after impassioned testimony (Twin Cities Pioneer Press, 3/16/16).] Today, Wednesday, March 16, the Minnesota Senate Health, Human Services, and Housing Committee held a hearing […]
It’s been awhile since we’ve written about the Final Exit Network (FEN), but there are new developments in the criminal case against members of the group. You can read earlier posts on the case in Minnesota here, here, here and here. Here’s an excerpt from a summary on NPR on the Frontline site (Frontline producers […]
From the Telegraph-Herald: MINNEAPOLIS — Members of a national right-to-die group are challenging Minnesota’s assisted-suicide law, saying it violates constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association. The group Final Exit Network is challenging the law after four of its members were indicted in May in the suicide of a Minnesota woman. Prosecutors […]
SunThisweek has a new story about the Final Exit Network (FEN) and the suicide of Doreen Dunn by reporter Laura Adelmann. This article focuses largely on comments and reactions from friends, neighbors and local Minnesotans. Of most importance and interest for readers of this blog, the article also includes excellent comments from Gordie Haug, a […]
From the Baltimore Sun: HASTINGS, Minn. — A Minnesota grand jury has indicted a national right-to-die group and several members for their actions in the 2007 suicide of a suburban Minneapolis woman, prosecutors announced Monday. The 17-count indictment charges the medical director of Final Exit Network, Lawrence Egbert of Baltimore, and three other officials with […]
Right now, this latest story involving the Final Exit Network (FEN) is getting only local coverage, but it could become a national story, depending on the outcome. From the story, by reporter Laura Adelmann: Apple Valley woman may have killed herself using information from Final Exit Network In a March 26 letter to a defense […]
