Testimony of Karen Scheiderman – MA Assisted Suicide Hearing

February 24, 2010advocacy, assisted suicide, Massachusetts, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…y private decision, not one to be made with a doctor, even a doctor with scruples, because the entire culture in which we live already sees me and my sisters and brothers with disabilities as throw aways. I know there will come a time when I will feel the desire to end my life, as I suspect most people do at some point. As the daughter of a healthy 92 year-old man who chose to jump to his death in an act of suicide a decade ago, I know whatever dr…

Ann Neumann and Vancouver Sun: Dissing Disability Activists’ Opposition to Legalized Euthanasia

March 16, 2010Ann Neumann, assisted suicide, Canada, euthanasia, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check, tracy latimerStephen Drake

…ural one. Robert Latimer, who gassed his daughter Tracy in the cab of his truck, had many defenders – including members of the “right to die” movement in Canada. Ruth von Fuchs, current president of the Right to Die Society of Canada, had some pretty unambiguous quotes during the trial of Robert Latimer: Proponents of euthanasia say that, until proper legal and social supports are in place, many people, like Latimer, have to take the law into thei…

ADAPT – and NDY – Celebrate Community First Choice Option in Health Care

March 24, 2010ADAPT, health care reform, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…olent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom, has to say about the health reform bill passed by the House and signed by President Obama: News Release For more information, contact: Mike Oxford, (785) 224-3865 Bob Kafka, (512) 431-4085 http://www.adapt.org ADAPT Celebrates Community First Choice Option in Health Care Reform ADAPT, the national cross-disability…

Fifth Anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s Death – A History Lesson

March 31, 2010media coverage, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, policy, politics, reality check, schiavoStephen Drake

…n said it provided an opportunity to showcase what he called Republican intrusiveness in the lives of Americans. This is far from a complete list of those who promoted a revisionist history of the Schiavo strruggle for their own political ends, but it’s pretty representative. On the right and the left, both bet on the same revision of history – that the battle over Terri Schiavo was a chapter in the “culture wars.” In the end, it would seem that H…

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

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

…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 that the disability perspective is represented in the case. In its brief, O…