Canadian Assisted Suicide Case Sparks Dueling Letters on Disability

November 29, 2011Alison Davis, assisted suicide, Canada, Council of Canadians with Disabilities, court cases, diane coleman, disability rights advocates, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, Rhonda WiebeStephen Drake

…a woman with ALS. The public debate is well underway. On November 13, the Calgary Herald published an op ed by three opponents of legalization entitled “Why we should be afraid of assisted suicide.” The authors describe the case as follows: Carter vs. Attorney General of Canada brings a constitutional challenge to Canada’s laws prohibiting assisted suicide and euthanasia. The case also seeks to legalize these practices as a medical treatment. Las…

Time Magazine – Sloppy and Inaccurate Kevorkian Obit Written by News Director in “Person of the Year” Issue

December 15, 2011assisted suicide, euthanasia, Howard Chua-Eoan, Kevorkian, media issues, obitiatry, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check, Time magazineStephen Drake

…ways to see out their earthly existence. But Kevorkian’s confidence in his quest remained unruffled. “It’s unstoppable,” he told TIME. “It may not be in my lifetime, but my opponents are going to lose. There’s a lot of human misery out there.” Most readers of this blog know more about Kevorkian than the general public does. I highlighted two sentences above in which Kevorkian’s concerns and activities are said to have revolved around people who we…

Disability Activists, Advocates and Others Pile on Time Magazine’s Error-Filled Kevorkian Tribute

December 19, 2011assisted suicide, bint alshamsa, blog recommendations, Carol Loving, diane coleman, euthanasia, john kelly, Kendall Corbett, Kevorkian, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, Time magazineStephen Drake

…his earliest was Sherry Miller. In The Suicide Machine, the Detroit Free Press described her as a woman who had been abandoned by her husband, who also took her children. Having known women with MS who raised children, I see Sherry Miller’s despair as having been caused, not by MS, but by her husband. As a disabled woman, I see Kevorkian as a serial killer who exploited women like Sherry Miller, who didn’t get the same suicide prevention a non-dis…

Organ Procurement Guidelines, Health Care Decisions and People With Disabilities

January 3, 2012bioethics, dcd, diane coleman, donation after cardiac death, national catholic partnership on disability, organ donation, Our News & Commentary Blog, public comment, Stephen Mikochik, united network for organ sharingStephen Drake

…UNOS Board at its November meeting. On November 8, NDY sent a letter to “request that the comment period be reopened for the Proposal to Update and Clarify Language in the DCD Model Elements in order to enable the development and submission of comments by organizations representing people with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and neuromuscular disabilities.” Essentially, we argued “Nothing about us without us.” Stephen Mikochik, a blind attorn…

Maryland: Using a “PVS” Diagnosis to justify Organ Harvesting Without Consent

February 21, 2012Maryland, Maryland Disability Law Center, national catholic partnership on disability, National Catholics Bioethics Center, organ donation, organ transplants, Our News & Commentary Blog, Stephen Mikochik, vegetative stateStephen Drake

…urrent urinary tract infections” which can become more generalized. Specifically arguing against presumed consent by the person diagnosed in PVS, she says, “House Bill 449 violates the right to informed consent of the most vulnerable of persons, subjecting them to a procedure that could be lethal to them.” She then addresses a proposed amendment to the bill which would limit the organ donation authority to people diagnosed in PVS from whom life su…