DREDF Urges New Mexico Attorney General to Appeal Lower Court Assisted Suicide Ruling

January 30, 2014aid in dying, assisted suicide, court decisions, dredf, Marilyn Golden, New Mexico, Our News & Commentary BlogNew MexicoDiane Coleman

…of assisted suicide, to urge you to appeal the Second Judicial District’s ruling in the Morris assisted suicide case. DREDF is a leading national law and policy organization that advances the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development. We are deeply concerned about the Morris decision allowing so-called “aid-in-dying,” which is really assisted suici…

Response to NYT Front Page Public Relations “Article” Promoting Assisted Suicide

February 12, 2014assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, media, New York Times, suicideaid in dying, assisted suicide, death with dignity, Erick Eckholm, media coverage, media issues, New York Times, propaganda, terminologyStephen Drake

…ocates can’t refer to VSED and the NH bill as “aid in dying” if they stay true to their previous assertions about their rationale for the term. So what’s next? “Death with dignity” is. It’s already part of the language of many of the bills. And the term is even farther removed from the reality of helping a human being kill him or her self. It’s not just hypothetical. Last month, the website governing.com published an article by David Levine promot…

Dr. Thomas Szasz Dies at Age 92, Critic of Coercion and Psychiatry

September 12, 2012assisted suicide, libertarians, obitiatry, Our News & Commentary Blog, suicide, Thomas SzaszStephen Drake

In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined. – Thomas Szasz Strictly speaking, assisted suicide is an oxymoron. –Thomas Szasz From the NY Times: Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist whose 1961 book “The Myth of Mental Illness” questioned the legitimacy of his field and provided the intellectual grounding for generations of critics, patient advocates and antipsychiatry activists, making enemies of many f…

RELEASE: Disability Rights Group Challenges Language for Assisted Suicide Ballot Measure as “Misleading, Inaccurate, and Euphemistic”

May 18, 2012Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…to assume that being ‘terminally ill’ is a biological fact, rather than a human guess.” “People with disabilities are very familiar with so-called terminal diagnoses,” said Second Thoughts member John Norton of Florence. “Everyone knows someone who has outlived their terminal diagnosis — I was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease as a teenager; I’m alive and well fifty years later. The ballot language misleads by implying that a ‘terminally-ill’ d…

Maryland: New Factually-Impaired Op-Ed from Final Exit Network – and My Response

June 9, 2010assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, Conflation and Con jobs, crime and punishment, final exit network, media coverage, op-ed, Our News & Commentary BlogStephen Drake

…tor, Dr. Egbert. Ending a life of unbearable pain and indignity is a basic human right. We at Final Exit Network provide compassion in the form of information and empathy, and we are proud of our work. I read that, took some anti-nausea medication, and typed off a “comment” for the online copy of Dincin’s piece. Then I reworked it and submitted it as a “reader comment” aka “letter to the editor.” It was accepted and published online. I am told tha…