Disability Activists “Greet” Euthanasia Activist in San Francisco

This just in from Marilyn Golden, Policy Analyst at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF):

(The date for the events below was November 10, 2009)

On Tuesday morning, three anti-assisted suicide advocates from the San Francisco Bay Area disability community, Paul Longmore, Walter Park, and myself came to the San Francisco Buddhist Center (which had been rented for the occasion but was not connected to the event itself) in order to leaflet outside an event by Dr. Philip Nitschke (the “Australia Kevorkian,” as some have termed him). Paul had come early, done a wonderful job speaking with the media, and had to leave. Walter and I continue to relaxedly leaflet newcomers outside the building and calmly discuss with those who were interested, our deep concerns with Nitschke and Exit International. (Several of them commented that these discussions were interesting and enlightening.) When it came time to go in to hear the program, Walter and I were actually refused entry to this presumably public event (we were actually physically resisted and barred from entering) and termed a “security threat” by Nitschke’s partner, Fiona Stewart (Ph.D.), who become much more agitated and upset than we had been at any point. This highly bizarre experience was another object lesson in how threatening to them the truth can be.

We are disability rights advocates.

Dr. Philip Nitschke and Exit International endanger vulnerable people who are already unconscionably neglected and at risk.

Nitschke advocates death on demand for ANYONE of ANY AGE for ANY REASON. This irresponsible position threatens lonely people, depressed people, older people, and people with disabilities.

Nitschke believes that anyone, including teenagers, should be able to get suicide drugs on demand. He thinks lethal drugs should be available to “anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, [and] the troubled teen … .” [Kathryn Lopez, “Euthanasia Sets Sail,” National Review Online, June 5, 2001.]

Nitschke calls for suicide on demand at a time when drastic budget cuts in many states are slashing funding for crisis counseling and suicide intervention programs.

Nitschke favors facilitating suicide by older people at a time when elder abuse is rampant in the US. The perpetrators are often family members.[1] Given the prevalence of abuse of older people by their own relatives, many can easily be pressured into “choosing” to die.

Nitschke supports suicide by people with disabilities at a time when in California tens of thousands of individuals are being cut off from the In-Home Support Services that keep them out of nursing homes. Some say they would rather die than go into a nursing home.

Nitschke supports suicide even by physically healthy people. Many of his victims were physically healthy at the time of their induced deaths. None of his seven “patients” had severe pain. Palliative care expert Prof. David Kissane concluded that some just needed better medical and psychiatric care. Kissane warned: “It is evident that the regulations did not serve as an effective safeguard to protect the vulnerable.”

Even people who do not oppose voluntary euthanasia have had second thoughts about legalizing assisted suicide because of Nitschke’s reckless behavior. Andrew Bolt wrote in the Herald Sun, Northwest Territory, Australia:

Giving the likes of Philip Nitschke licence to kill could create all sorts of horror for the lonely, scared, helpless and impressionable. … Few people could have been more in favour of euthanasia than was I.… In fact, what most influenced me far more has been — ironically – Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International. It’s Australia’s most famous lobbyist for euthanasia who has best shown me how dangerous it can be and what evil might be unleashed in legalising it. I saw how he started by helping people to die who were not in pain or dying. I saw him move on to helping people to die who were not even sick. Here we see the slippery slide that is inevitable when you remove the taboo against murder and suicide. What then stops anyone from killing themselves? Or, soon, from killing others?

Philip Nitschke’s advocacy of suicide on demand is extremist paternalistic medicine at its most irresponsible and lethal.

We demand an equitable and just health care system that guarantees people’s right to appropriate and adequate health care, including suicide intervention.

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[1] The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study (NEAIS) was conducted by the National Center on Elder Abuse at the American Public Human Services Association. It showed that, in 1996, 450,000 elders age 60 and over were abused, according to a study of observed cases. In almost 90 percent of the elder abuse and neglect incidents with a known perpetrator, the perpetrator was a family member, and two-thirds of the perpetrators were adult children or spouses. [National Center on Elder Abuse: “National Elder Abuse Incidence Study,” Washington: American Public Human Services Association, 1998.]