Not Dead Yet New England Regional Director John Kelly sent a letter to the editor last week after the Cape Cod Times published Rabbi Elias Lieberman’s opinion piece promoting legalized assisted suicide.
In the lead up to the 2012 referendum on assisted suicide, Rabbi Lieberman invited John to take part in a panel discussion about assisted suicide before his Reform congregation. Lieberman stacked the panel with four proponents of assisted suicide, and after a review of the long-standing Jewish teaching against assisted suicide, added his own support for the referendum. The referendum, known as Question 2, went down to defeat because of the strong turnout of people of color, historically opposed to assisted suicide.
Just as he did at that panel discussion, John’s letter uses some of Not Dead Yet’s main arguments against assisted suicide: that it leads to innocent people losing their lives because of misdiagnosis, coercion, and abuse, and because of bottom line decisions by insurers. Because of space limitations, John did not address the issue of “unacceptable suffering,” which relates not to uncontrolled pain but mental distress about the disabling aspects of people’s serious illnesses. For a more in-depth look, please see Not Dead Yet President/CEO Diane Coleman’s recent analysis of the Oregon assisted suicide program data.
The Cape Cod Times published John’s letter in its November 28th edition. Here it is:
To the Editor:
Proponents of legalization like Elias Lieberman (My View, 11/16) present assisted suicide as a fairytale in which doctors can predict the future and everyone wants the best for you.
In the real world, legalized assisted suicide inevitably leads to the tragic deaths of innocent people, through mistakes and abuse.
Every year nationally, thousands of people prove doctors wrong by outliving their mistaken terminal diagnosis. Every year in Oregon and Washington, doctors prescribe suicide for people who are not terminally ill. You may have months, years, or decades of life left, but with assisted suicide it takes just one mistaken doctor and their colleague to put you in the ground.
One out of every 10 older adults is abused every year, mostly by adult children and caregivers. Someone in line to inherit your estate can help sign you up, pick up the prescription, and then take action against you. No witness is required at the death, so who would know?
Insurers always cover assisted suicide because it’s the cheapest “treatment.” Meanwhile, they routinely deny seriously-ill people medical treatment prescribed by their doctors.
Let’s protect innocent people like ourselves from a law that could send us to our early deaths.
John B. Kelly
Director
Second Thoughts MA: Disability Rights Advocates against Assisted Suicide