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

…five extensive and thoughtful precedent cases of our Supreme Court. It’s true that the cases — Quinlan, Conroy, Farrell, Peter, and Jobes — all dealt with patients or family members who were seeking to stop medical intervention which was prolonging life. The doctors were either acquiescent or desirous to continue treating. None of those cases had the patient or the patient’s surrogate decisionmaker wanting to go on and the doctors saying, “stop.”…

Ms. Magazine Blogger Praises Kevorkian, Disses People With Disabilities, and Angers Some Feminists With Disabilities

May 11, 2010blog recommendations, bloggers, culture wars, feminism, Kevorkian, media coverage, Ms Magazine, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality checkStephen Drake

…sabled infants, etc. – in a way that they could also be exploited for live human experimentation and organ harvesting. See this post for more information. Given her role as the director of an organization that advocates for abortion rights, it’s probably not surprising that she draws a straight and simplistic line in her entry – a line between assisted suicide and abortion. (This is, of course, the same line that prolifers like to draw – it seems…

Press Release: Disability Activists from Not Dead Yet and Second Thoughts to Testify in Opposition to Connecticut Assisted Suicide Bill

March 17, 2014Our News & Commentary BlogDiane Coleman

…ion. Modeled after the Massachusetts group of the same name, which was instrumental in defeating an assisted suicide ballot referendum in that state in 2012, the group says that a closer look at the details of assisted suicide proposals give people “second thoughts.” “The bill would establish a government recommendation that doctor-prescribed suicide is sometimes the best treatment,” said Kelly. “Innocent people who are not terminal and are not ma…

NPR’s Morning Edition Covers the Organ Procurement Debate

June 24, 2013bioethics, donation after cardiac death, national catholic partnership on disability, OPTN, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, organ transplants, Our News & Commentary Blog, Rob Stein, Stephen MikochikDiane Coleman

…rsity’s law school, worries about certain situations, such as when parents rush to the hospital and discover a child has suffered severe brain injuries in a car accident. “You’re going to be extremely upset. And if a physician comes in and says, ‘Look, the prognosis doesn’t look very good.’ And then a procurement officer comes in and says, ‘Well, look, let’s make something meaningful out of this.’ You might decide right then to agree to take the p…

Disabilityscoop fails to get the real scoop – Disability, organ transplantation and the HHS

September 21, 2012ari ne'eman, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, disabilityscoop, discrimination, HHS, national council on independent living, national disability leadership alliance, organ donation, organ transplants, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…the National Disability Leadership Alliance (NDLA) met with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Division on Transplantation. Two major concerns were brought to the meeting. Kelly Buckland, the Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), was one of the participants and NCIL published a brief report on the meeting on September 19: On September 14, 2012, NCIL Executive Director Kelly Buckland, along with other representat…