There’s been no shortage of reactions to the New Mexico lower court ruling enjoining prosecutions of physician assisted suicide in that state, but we rarely see the disability perspective hit the mainstream press so quickly as Marilyn Golden’s op ed in the Albuquerque Journal.
In Assisted suicide full of dangers, which appeared in the Journal’s January 17th edition, Golden provided a thorough and solid explanation of the risks that legalization of assisted suicide poses to people “facing serious illness or disability.”
This ruling tears away at the fabric of what those of us in the disability rights movement have been working to improve: a health care system free to deal with each individual uniquely rather than as a line-item on an accounting ledger, the elimination of abuse and coercion by those seeking to profit or take advantage of someone during a difficult time, and the illusion that individuals with a severe illness or disability should be measured by a flawed societal definition of quality of life.
The New Mexico lower court apparently bought into superficial government reports of a problem free practice of assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington where it is legal, but ignored extensive anecdotal accounts of problems. As Golden noted:
Oregon’s assisted suicide law passed in 1999 and has been widely scrutinized by those in the medical community, disability rights advocates and ethicists who have noted many examples of unreported problems and complications with the law, generally only brought to light through investigative reporting or personal testimonies.
On the subject of the so-called “choice” of assisted suicide, Golden described the infamous case of Barbara Wagner in Oregon.
Wagner was an Oregon retiree diagnosed with lung cancer. During the course of her treatment, her physician recommended particular chemotherapy, but within weeks, she received a notice from her insurer that they would not cover the life-saving treatment. However, they would pay for assisted suicide.
To read the rest if Golden’s excellent op ed, I encourage our readers to go here. – Diane Coleman