Arizona Daily Star Romanticizes the Suicide of a Disabled Woman in a “Tribute”

September 18, 2009euthanasia, media coverage, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check, suicide, suicide preventionStephen Drake

…hed as a rape crisis counselor and an instructor in social science at Pima Community College. And Kelly treated herself as compassionately as she did all others. She spent years thoughtfully formulating a plan. She long suspected the day would come when the physical pain of her disability and the emotional anguish over the abuses she suffered in childhood would outweigh her enjoyment of life. Kelly wrote long letters to family and friends. She cal…

NDY quoted in article on New Mexico assisted suicide case

July 17, 2012aid in dying, assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, Connecticut, court decisions, diane coleman, Montana, New Mexico, Our News & Commentary BlogDiane Coleman

…eatedly and unequivocally answered “no” (i.e. no problem) to the first two questions, but Compassion and Choices (C&C) often raises the specter of being hooked to unwanted tubes and forced to endure unwanted medical treatments when advocating for something completely different than the well established right to refuse treatment. Despite nearly 25 years of widespread public education about using advance directives to refuse unwanted treatment, C&C…

ABC News: NDY’s Stephen Drake Interviewed for Stephen Hawking Story and additional info/context

September 18, 2013assisted suicide, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, Stephen Hawkingassisted suicide, disabilities, Stephen HawkingStephen Drake

…ay’s reaction to Stephen Hawking knows that my main focus was exposing the common myths surrounding the “compassionate” reasons for pet euthanasia. I suspect that an explanation of that part of the response was a problem explained with my theory about word count limits. Likewise, in the last sentence, “the reasons” refer to the documented reasons that have been reported that people actually seek assisted suicide. The last part of the article conta…

NDY Comment Supporting Proposed (& Long Overdue) Prohibition of Subminimum Wages

November 12, 2021Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, National Federation of the Blind, Our News & Commentary Blog, public comment, quality of life judgments, Section 14(c)public comment, Subminimum WageDiane Coleman

…abilities receive the training, support, and ultimately the opportunity to obtain competitive integrated employment. We are also pleased to see the growing recognition that the Section 14(c) program represents a harmful and wrongful devaluation of disabled people. Not Dead yet strongly supports the NPRM in prohibiting nonprofit agencies from paying subminimum wages on AbilityOne contracts. Moving forward with this rulemaking will send a strong mes…

Statement On Mourning the Death of Jerika Bolen

September 23, 2016Our News & Commentary BlogDiane Coleman

…ovided to Jerika, it would appear that no authorities felt it necessary to obtain answers to the many questions the reported facts raise. In the midst of our shock, grief and despair at a system that would so callously throw away the life of a beautiful disabled girl, we have asked, and continue to ask, those questions. Regarding physical pain . . . What was the cause of Jerika’s reported extreme physical pain? Contrary to media misinformation, pa…