Joan Cavanagh: State needs health care, not “death with dignity”

April 3, 2021"death with dignity", aid in dying, assisted suicide, Connecticut, futility, healthcare rationing, Joan Cavanagh, life-sustaining treatment, op-ed, Our News & Commentary Blog, quality of life judgments, Second Thoughts Connecticutassisted suicide, Connecticut, death with dignity, medical discrimination, Second Thoughts ConnectcutDiane Coleman

…l demeans them and burdens caregivers and society. This repudiation of our human connection and responsibility to each another lies at the core of these bills, which contain the seeds of abuse, neglect and coercion. To deny this and to dismissively state that we are “fighting a battle we don’t need to fight” is insulting and belittles the lived experiences of those who have been forced to constantly struggle against the medical system to get neede…

Carol Cleigh Sutton: We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident…

December 17, 2020ableism, aid in dying, assisted suicide, better dead than disabled, bioethics, Carol Cleigh Sutton, euthanasia, healthcare rationing, Our News & Commentary Blogbetter dead than disabled, euthanasia, nonvoluntary euthanasia, W. Carol CleighDiane Coleman

…y kills “the unproductive.” That is, until a good friend of his died. The truth is that the history of human civilization is a tension between two positions: hierarchy of value and equity of value. Either we value all human lives equally or we don’t. Many ideologies defend hierarchy, Divine Right to Social Darwinism to Utilitarianism have tried to normalize the rejection of equality. Of these, Social Darwinism and Utilitarianism seek to ‘perfect’…

Diane Coleman: What the COVID Crisis Tells Us About the Dangers of Assisted Suicide

February 2, 2021"death with dignity", ableism, access to health care, aid in dying, assisted suicide, better dead than disabled, bioethics, COVID-19, diane coleman, end-of-life options bills, health disparities, healthcare rationing, medical discrimination, national council on disability, Our News & Commentary Blogaid in dying, assisted suicide, COVID-19, Diane Coleman, end of life options, healthcare disparities, healthcare rationing, medical discriminationDiane Coleman

…ted suicide laws have pushed for public acceptance based on a generalized trust that medical providers are both willing and able to protect very ill individuals from medical mistakes as well as coercion and abuse. But that trust is, in many cases, misplaced and, in all cases, unrealistic. Claims that there have been no abuses are patently false, but more cases would surface if these laws were not designed to hide them. Assisted suicide laws must b…

‘Uncontrollable freight train’ | Persons with disabilities speak out against DE assisted suicide bill

January 19, 2022"death with dignity", aid in dying, assisted suicide, Delaware, end-of-life options bills, healthcare rationing, Matt Valliere, medical discrimination, Our News & Commentary Blogassisted suicide, Delaware, end of life options, press coverageDiane Coleman

…id her terminal diagnosis led to her insurance recommending to her lethal drugs to perform assisted suicide would be much cheaper than life-saving treatments. While they eventually agreed to cover her treatment, she echoed McMullin Powell’s concerns that governments shouldn’t be setting such black-and-white legislation when that’s not how businesses like health insurance work, and are instead focused on financial savings. “It’s this uncontrollable…

Anita Cameron: Health Disparities and Medical Abuse: Why Blacks Shouldn’t Support Assisted Suicide

June 17, 2022ableism, Anita Cameron, assisted suicide, bigotry, civil rights, COVID-19, discrimination, experimentation, health disparities, medical discrimination, Michael Hickson, Our News & Commentary Blog, racismAnita Cameron, assisted suicide, healthcare disparities, Juneteenth, medical aid in dying, medical discrimination, racial disparities, racismDiane Coleman

…ld learn what the end results were. HeLa cells, the first line of immortal human cells, were taken from the body of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, without the knowledge or consent of her or her family. Those cells are still being used in medical research today. Now, there is COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. What started as an outbreak has turned into a worldwide pandemic, with over one million Americans dea…