[Editor’s Note: This is an urgent update of John Kelly’s September 13th blog on ways to reach California Governor Jerry Brown to urge him to veto the assisted suicide bill. It’s a bill that failed in the regular legislative session but was revived and rammed through a special session that was convened to address the Medicaid budget. That juxtaposition is far from comforting to the disability community.]
For the sake of California and the country, Gov. Jerry Brown of California must veto assisted suicide bill AB2x 15, recently passed by the legislature. Governor Brown must veto a bill that tells vulnerable people that suicide is good for us. He must stop a bill that makes our terrible social inequality even worse. The legislature wouldn’t contribute more to Medi-Cal, but will fully fund the only medical “choice” less well-to-do people and people of color never asked for.
Suicide for certain people must never be declared a social benefit!
Now we have the chance to win an historic victory for social justice and disability rights.
If this bill becomes law, some people’s lives will be ended without their consent, through mistakes and abuse. No safeguards have ever been enacted or proposed that can prevent this outcome, which can never be undone.– Marilyn Golden, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)
LETTERS, EMAILS, CALLS FOR A VETO
Your letter, your email, your calls matter. Every time the governor hears from us moves us closer to victory. Contact the governor for yourself, and for every other vulnerable person in California and the country. We are all in this together – older people, depressed people, poorer people, abused people, misdiagnosed people, people of color, non-English speakers, native people, and anyone considered “less than fully human.”
MAILING + FAX ADDRESS
Handwritten or typed letters and postcards.
Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
FAX: 916-558-3160
Scroll down to the “Talking Points” for arguments the other side can’t answer!
EMAIL GOV JERRY BROWN New Instructions
Go online to the contact form.
At “Purpose of communication,” click “Have Comment.”
At “Please Choose Your Subject”, click on the down arrow at the right, and scroll all the way to the bottom. Click on the last topic. “X2AB00015\End of Life.”
(It probably doesn’t matter whether you check the box for wanting a reply. We probably won’t hear anything definite until the governor’s announcement.)
At the next page at the top, click on “CON” to show you are against the assisted suicide bill. If you don’t see the choice at the top, go back and make sure that you clicked on “Have Comment”.
Scroll down for talking points
TELEPHONE: 916-445-2841
It can be as simple as telling the aide you oppose assisted suicide. Or make a sentence or two out of it. For example, I will say, I am a disabled person who’s been told “better dead than disabled” for 30 years. Governor Brown must veto the assisted suicide bill.
Proven arguments are listed below. For example, I oppose assisted suicide because of all the innocent people that will lose their lives through mistakes and abuse.
TWITTER – Hashtag #VetoAssistedSuicide.
Governor Jerry Brown’s twitter address is @JerryBrownGOV .
Please ask him to #VetoAssistedSuicide . It’s a very clear, easily understood, hashtag.
If you begin your Tweet with an “@”, remember to put a “DOT” first. Here is a sample:
.@JerryBrownGOV Honor #SuicidePreventionMonth #VetoAssistedSuicide @autselfadvocacy @NoSuicideCA @LATimes http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4486478956001/california-passes-right-to-die-bill/?#sp=show-clips @DREDF
Here is the Tweet as it looks on someone’s twitter feed. That really long hyperlink? Twitter automatically reduced that to 16 characters.
Now watch the video! Social justice health advocate Ken Barnes insists on making life-saving points, politely.
To find some good tweets, go to twitter addresses and hashtags like
#VetoAssistedSuicide #AssistedSuicide #AlwaysDignified @2ndThoughtsCT @NotDeadYetUSA @JohnBrianKelly
@NoSuicideCA @DREDF @autselfadvocacy @NCILAdvocacy #2ndThoughts #BlanketImmunity
and individual advocates you will find tweeting these messages.
Talking Points
1. Insurance Denial Poorer people, disabled people, and people of color have trouble getting ANY care. It’s no “choice” when your insurer denies you treatment but offers you suicide. Assisted suicide will always be the cheapest treatment. Your assisted suicide saves insurers money!
2. Abuse Elder abuse and abuse of people with disabilities are epidemic. Nothing in the law can stop an heir or abusive caregiver from steering someone towards assisted suicide, witnessing the request, picking up the lethal dose, and even administering the drug — no witnesses are required at the death, so who would know? The Oregon law has invited every sort of abuse.
3. Mistakes: Misdiagnosis that you are “terminal” can be deadly. People alive today are grateful that assisted suicide wasn’t available when they were diagnosed. People alive today are grateful they found a doctor willing to treat their illness.
For more Talking Points and other information from John Kelly, go to Second Thoughts.