Disability Activist Anita Cameron To Speak At Congressional Briefing On Assisted Suicide
Bipartisan Resolution Opposing Assisted Suicide Laws Reintroduced
Contacts: Anita Cameron 585-259-8746; Diane Coleman 708-420-0539
Anita Cameron, director of minority outreach for Not Dead Yet, will speak at a Congressional briefing to be held Thursday, December 12, 2019 in Room 2168 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
The briefing is cosponsored by the National Council on Disability (NCD), Congressman Lou Correa (D-CA) and Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH). This briefing will explore the findings and recommendations of a recent federal study of the country’s assisted suicide laws and their effect on access to health care and other dangers for people with disabilities.
The briefing coincides with this week’s reintroduction of a bipartisan House resolution, “Expressing the sense of the Congress that assisted suicide (sometimes referred to using other terms) puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm.” Representative Correa is the lead sponsor, joined by Representative Wenstrup, and additional original cosponsors are Rep. James Langevin (D-RI), Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (R-MD), Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. Ralph Abraham, M.D. (R-LA), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA).
Cameron has often spoken of the risks posed to people of color if assisted suicide becomes normalized in our healthcare system. “Due to racial disparities, Blacks and people of color receive inferior healthcare compared to Whites, especially in cardiac care, diabetes and pain management. Blacks are diagnosed with cancer at much later stages and the prognosis is worse,” Cameron says. “With so much documented healthcare injustice, we should not grant the system a greater license to kill.”
NDY’s president and CEO, Diane Coleman, also provided a statement in support of the resolution: “As a national, secular, social justice organization, Not Dead Yet strongly supports this bipartisan effort to speak truth to counter the many myths about legalized assisted suicide. As Americans with disabilities, we are on the front lines of the nation’s health care system that too often devalues old, ill, and disabled people. We are deeply concerned that profits are being prioritized over human needs. So we are grateful for this Sense of Congress that explains the dangers of mistake, coercion, and abuse under a public policy of assisted suicide.”
Additional national disability organizations issuing statements this week supporting the resolution include ADAPT, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund and the National Council on Independent Living.
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