This is a quick sharing from our “In the News” section of our website, with excerpts from articles that included the disability perspective in the last two days of coverage of the assisted suicide issue spurred by media attention to the Brittany Maynard story. Marilyn Golden, John Kelly and I have also had op-eds published very recently, and links to those have been posted under “Op eds.” I apologize for the lack of analysis of the coverage, but I’m sure that our regular readers are very aware of how one-sided the majority of coverage has been.
Brittany Maynard’s Storybook Ending (Townhall.com, 11/4/14)
Marilyn Golden of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund fears that Maynard’s storyline will create “suicide contagion” as other young people, even those who are not terminally ill, see her as a model. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “more than 50 research studies worldwide have found that certain types of news coverage can increase the likelihood of suicide in vulnerable individuals. The magnitude of the increase is related to the amount, duration and prominence of coverage.”
Aid-in-dying local conversation (WHAM Cha. 13, 11/4/14)
“It’s not about people taking their own lives it’s setting up a system where medical providers and everyone involved are guaranteed immunity in assisting someone with suicide, the doctor acts as gate keeper,” said Stephen Drake of the “Not Dead Yet” advocacy group. “That’s kind of dangerous public policy in terms of making that significant difference because the suicide prevention statues are based on the idea lives are valuable.” The group “Not Dead Yet” is a disability rights group who believes aid-in-dying laws discriminate against old, ill and disabled. Drake explains doctors can be wrong and sometimes people who are once called terminal end up living much longer.
Brittany Maynard’s death could spur action on assisted suicide in California (Sacramento Bee, 11/3/14)
“The number of people who are at risk of significant harm (is) so much larger than the people who would be helped,” said Marilyn Golden, a policy analyst for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. “If assisted suicide is legal, some people’s lives will be ended without their consent through mistakes and abuse.”
Offering death as an option would influence not just patients, Golden said, but also doctors and insurance companies who help guide end-of-life decisions.
“There is a deadly mix between our broken profit-driven health system and the option of assisted suicide, which will become the cheapest so-called treatment,” Golden said. “Will insurers do the right thing or the cheap thing?”
More attention to right-to-death debate after Maynard’s death (USA Today, 11/3/14)
At the time of death, the laws don’t require an independent witness to verify it’s the patient who is administering the drugs themselves or not being pressured to take the drugs, said Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, a disability rights organization that opposes legalizing assisted suicide.
“You don’t really know what’s going on behind closed doors,” Coleman said.
The Future of the Right-to-Die Movement (U.S. News & World Report, 11/3/14)
Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, says Maynard’s case may present a compelling argument on an individual level, “but we must look more broadly at society, at all the people who stand to be harmed.”
She says the Oregon law does not do enough to protect vulnerable people from being pressured by abusive care workers, family members or even their insurance companies. Furthermore, she says, diagnoses of how long a patient has to live can be wrong, and there is not enough being done to screen for mental depression or other psychiatric issues.
“When people read the fine print, assisted suicide bills are defeated in legislatures,” she says, noting there are other legal forms of care, known as palliative care, that can relieve the suffering of the terminally ill.
I recently read the CNN article regarding Brittany Maynard that you contributed to. I’d like to give you the other perspective. I am a 39 year old wife and mother of two, diagnosed with a glioma brain tumor at age 33. I live in IL, and since there were no local doctors with the experience to operate in the very difficult area of my brain where the tumor was located, I traveled to San Francisco in June 2009 to have surgery. My surgeon removed 98% of a Grade II Oligodendroglioma. Oligodendrogliomas have three grades with Grade III being considered Glioblastoma Multiforme–the kind of cancer Brittany Maynard had. Grade II doesn’t officially have cancer cells and is slow growing, but it is still considered brain cancer. Gliomas come back as a higher grade 75% of the time. While my cancer has not progressed to Glioblastoma as of now, I am living with the brain cancer that Brittany Maynard had.
The incessant stories of how Brittany “chose to die with dignity” have been very traumatic for me. She is the only survivor I’ve heard of, and I know a lot of survivors, who has made this choice. I also know that I have been to 9 different brain doctors, and not one has ever given me a life expectancy time line because we are all different! Yes brain cancer has a grim outcome, but there are some people who live with even Glioblastoma for many years. Don’t quote me, but I believe in the last 40 years, the life expectancies for brain cancer have not improved. It’s sad, but I want to live.
I want to live! When I was diagnosed almost seven years ago, my sons were 4 and 6 years old. The hardest part in all of this is facing the reality that I may not be here to raise my children. I will fight until my last breath to be here for them. I could not imagine taking one second of my life from my family. My family has suffered. All of us have bad anxiety disorders, and the disease has been a financial burden on us. But again, I cannot imagine taking my life.
My grandfather also died from Glioblastoma. He died at home with all of us around him. I was very present as he died, and I do not remember him being in pain. He lost the ability to speak. but he still comprehended what was going on around him. I am so glad I had that time with him.
I know there are many people who support Brittany’s decision, but I am sick of hearing, “we don’t let our pets suffer, why do humans have to suffer.” I am not a dog! I am a human being who has a husband and children who need me! I love my life. I love my family, and I want to fight! The thought of being denied treatment to fight this monster if physician assisted suicide becomes legal is terrifying! I just wanted you to hear the other perspective since assisted suicide is what you fight against. Thank you.
Hello Steffanie,
I’m glad to hear your story and the things you’ve gone through. I feel like part of the problem is these arguments for assisted suicide are often to emotional for me to give support. As someone who has been suicidal, I can say honestly say that the things people say make them want to die medically speaking are the same things I used to think about myself as a human being. The problem with assisted suicide is that it makes the value of a human life contingent. I wish more people would realize this.
Thank you, Steffanie, for sharing your perspective with us.
Your courage and intelligence and perception of the danger of legalized assisted suicide to those who will fight for their lives to the end is extraordinary.
As a loving Mother who has given life, you understand how precious life is and why every moment that you spend with your husband and children is worth the suffering that you undergo to make these moments possible.