A letter to the editor from Diane Coleman was published in the New York Times recently. Published September 25th, it was sandwiched between two letters in favor of legalizing assisted suicide. All three lettersreacted to A Lawsuit Aims to Expand Aid in Dying by Paula Span which first appeared in the NYTimes and later in “The New Old Age” column, Science Times, Sept. 19. Here is Coleman’s letter:
To the Editor:
This article assumes that physician-assisted suicide is acceptable health policy. However, there are two significant questions that states should address when considering its legalization: Should it be a medical treatment, and what are the harms of legalizing it?
On the first, many in the medical profession oppose physician-assisted suicide, including the American Medical Association, which holds that it “is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.”
On the second question, major disability rights organizations oppose physician-assisted suicide because it increases the risks that people with disabilities face in receiving medical care, as they are already too often subject to unequal treatment.
Adding physician-assisted suicide as a medical treatment exposes people with disabilities to systemic pressures to end their lives in the context of life-threatening illnesses. Before adopting physician-assisted suicide, or any extension of it, we need to ask, answer and understand the implications of such a step.
Diane Coleman Rochester, N.Y. The writer is president and C.E.O. of Not Dead Yet, a disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide.
1 thought on “Diane Coleman’s Letter Published in the New York Times”
Thank you Diane Coleman! My partner of 31 years was killed by doctors in the hospital in Corvallis, Oregon three years ago. She was disabled with quadriplegia and needed to be in a hospital for respiratory therapy treatments every time she got a cold or flu. She suffered from depression and was suicidal at the time she was admitted. The doctors in the hospital coerced her to accept “a peaceful transition” to the hereafter or accept a permanent tracheostomy and being hooked up to a home ventilator (which she didn’t want or need and was suing her doctors about it). Traching and putting a patient on a home ventilator transfers the risk of a person dying in the hospital to the person’s home, while simultaneously greatly reducing a patient’s life expectancy. The doctors were successful with their coercion, and my partner was murdered. She was a disability rights activist herself, and I am certain that she, as a spirit, is aware today and is immensely grateful for the efforts of people like Diane Coleman.
Thank you Diane Coleman! My partner of 31 years was killed by doctors in the hospital in Corvallis, Oregon three years ago. She was disabled with quadriplegia and needed to be in a hospital for respiratory therapy treatments every time she got a cold or flu. She suffered from depression and was suicidal at the time she was admitted. The doctors in the hospital coerced her to accept “a peaceful transition” to the hereafter or accept a permanent tracheostomy and being hooked up to a home ventilator (which she didn’t want or need and was suing her doctors about it). Traching and putting a patient on a home ventilator transfers the risk of a person dying in the hospital to the person’s home, while simultaneously greatly reducing a patient’s life expectancy. The doctors were successful with their coercion, and my partner was murdered. She was a disability rights activist herself, and I am certain that she, as a spirit, is aware today and is immensely grateful for the efforts of people like Diane Coleman.