Connecticut: Disability Rights Advocates Move to Intervene in Assisted Suicide Case

April 8, 2010advocacy, assisted suicide, Connecticut, litigation, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…s, a successor organization to the Hemlock Society. The two doctors seek a ruling protecting them from prosecution for prescribing lethal doses of drugs to patients whom they judge to be terminally ill and who ask for the drugs in order to commit suicide. OPA is joined in the motion by two well known Connecticut advocates, Catherine D. Ludlum of Manchester, and Claude Holcomb of Hartford. The advocates are asking to intervene in order to ensure th…

Connecticut: Affidavit of Nancy B. Alisberg in Motion to Intervene in Assisted Suicide Suit

April 14, 2010advocacy, Connecticut, devaluation, discrimination, life-ending decisions, litigation, medical decisionmaking, Our News & Commentary Blog, protection and advocacy, reality check, Surrogate Decisions & GuardianshipStephen Drake

As promised in yesterday’s blog posting, today I’m sharing the affidavit submitted by Nancy B. Alisberg, Managing Attorney at the Connecticut Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (OPA) in the OPA’s motion to intervene in Blick v. Division of Criminal Justice. Alisberg’s affidavit goes into detail about some of the actions she and her staff have taken to intervene in “end of life” (note: she doesn’t use that term, but it…

New Jersey/Futility: Oral Arguments in Betancourt v. Trinitas (Appellate Court)

April 27, 2010betancourt v. trinitas, bioethics, futile care, futility, life-ending decisions, litigation, new jersey, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…Peter, and Jobes — which seemed to present three distinct situations, and ruled on them in tandem to illustrate a consistent approach applied across varying facts. The Court also said, we want to get out of this business of having these cases come up through the courts. For one, it’s too slow. Even acting as fast as we can, Mrs. Farrell died “shackled to the respirator.” My clients feel that was possibly a too-hasty conclusion on the part of the…

June 4, 2010betancourt v. trinitas, futility, litigation, new jersey, Our News & Commentary Blog, thaddeus popeStephen Drake

…by stakeholders on both sides. Here is a brief summary of what happened to Ruben Betancourt from Sataline’s article “Court Weighs Death Decision“: Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth argues that Mr. Betancourt was in a persistent vegetative state and that giving further care was unwarranted and unethical, prolonging a painful death. The hospital is appealing a lower-court judgment from 2009 that ordered Trinitas to provide life-saving tr…

Maryland: New Factually-Impaired Op-Ed from Final Exit Network – and My Response

June 9, 2010assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, Conflation and Con jobs, crime and punishment, final exit network, media coverage, op-ed, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…that it was published on the Opinion page of the print edition of the Sun today (June 9). Here is my response to the latest FEN propaganda piece: As the research analyst for a national disability rights group that opposes legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide, I am all too familiar with the Final Exit Network (FEN). I think it’s important that readers – and the editors – know that Jerry Dincin misled readers on several points in his ess…