…om NPR is below.] MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Disability groups are challenging a California law that allows terminally ill people to get drugs to end their lives. The groups say that people living with disabilities are at greater risk of being coerced into seeking those medications for assisted suicide. NPR’s Joseph Shapiro has this report. JOSEPH SHAPIRO, BYLINE: People with disabilities often have a complicated relationship with the medical system. Ma…
…About six years ago, I went into respiratory failure and I now use what is called a non-invasive ventilator about 22 hours a day. If I did not use this support, I would go into respiratory failure and die in a fairly short time. Throughout my adult life, I have worked full time, first as an attorney and then directing nonprofit disability related organizations. Since 2012, working from home, I have continued to run Not Dead Yet, which has three st…
…f Suicidology recognizes that the practice of physician aid in dying, also called physician assisted suicide, Death with Dignity, and medical aid in dying, is distinct from the behavior that has been traditionally and ordinarily described as ‘suicide,’ the tragic event our organization works so hard to prevent. Although there may be overlap between the two categories, legal physician assisted deaths should not be considered cases of suicide and ar…
…s terminal conditions. Once death is accepted as a positive outcome of medical care, it inevitably gets offered to more and more people. The problem for us disabled people is that we are already treated badly in the medical system. As medicine has focused increasingly on patient “quality-of-life” as a barometer of life-worthiness, death has been recharacterized as a benefit to an ill or disabled individual. Most physicians (82%, a 2020 Harvard stu…
…ing this film project.] By Joan Cavanagh, Member, Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide Public discussion about the realities of Medical Assisted Suicide (MAS) is critical. The practice is increasingly becoming normalized as a “health care” option and already inadequate safeguards and restrictions in existing laws are being eroded, so much so that even those who have previously advocated for it are having second thoughts. At this important…
