W. Carol Cleigh letter: Hasty Re-Opening Will “Sacrifice the Weak for the Wealthy”

May 6, 2020COVID-19, eugenics, letters to the editor, lifeboat ethics, Our News & Commentary BlogCOVID-19, Letter to the Editor, W. Carol CleighDiane Coleman

…e House estimates put the cost of premature reopening at more than 230,000 human beings. Not all of whom will be old, ill and/or disabled. Many will be health care workers. Some will be young. Some will have been healthy before becoming ill. Georgia has already had a surge in cases. Perhaps most importantly in all of this is the question of who we want to be as a people. I’ve even seen advocates for this trying to dress up their devil’s bargain in…

Disability Advocates Oppose City Council’s Proposed Assisted Suicide Resolution

February 4, 2020"death with dignity", aid in dying, assisted suicide, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blogaid in dying, assisted suicide, city council, death with dignityDiane Coleman

…would be heard before the Council’s Human Services Committee on Monday, February 3rd. (h/t to Stephen Mendelsohn of Second Thoughts Connecticut for alerting us.) The disability advocates at Progress Center for Independent Living, including Evanston resident Larry Biondi, showed up to ensure that the disability opposition to the resolution was clearly heard. News coverage of the Committee meeting included a photo of Biondi making the case that assi…

Federal study finds QALYs restrict access to lifesaving healthcare for people with disabilities

November 17, 2019bioethics, devaluation, healthcare rationing, medical discrimination, national council on disability, Our News & Commentary Blog, qaly, Quality Adjusted Life Yearsbioethics, National Council on Disability, QALYsDiane Coleman

…ment and oversight responsibilities to cover only the most cost-effective drugs and treatments or to require the agency to impose restrictions on less cost-effective treatments. Congress should pass legislation prohibiting the use of QALYs by Medicaid and Medicare and provide funding to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for research on best practices on the use of cost-effectiveness to inform benefits and coverage decisions wi…

Two Disability Statements Issued After the Election of President-Elect Trump

November 10, 2016ADAPT, assisted suicide, national disability leadership alliance, Our News & Commentary BlogADAPT, assisted suicide, National Disability Leadership AllianceDiane Coleman

…d unity is essential to our cause. ADAPT’s Open Letter to President-Elect Trump President-Elect Trump, The Disability Community is a diverse community made up of people from different races, faiths, political beliefs, and backgrounds. Our community is the only inevitable minority: if a person lives long enough, they will eventually become disabled. Therefore, our interests are not partisan, but human; not political, but practical. We want all peop…

Sarah Cavar: Germany Grapples With Assisted Suicide In Courts and Parliament

July 9, 2018"death with dignity", aid in dying, assisted suicide, Germany, Our News & Commentary Blogaid in dying, assisted suicide, GermanyDiane Coleman

…n courts. According to DW.com, a German news outlet, the European Court of Human Rights — “decided not to issue a ruling on the right to assisted suicide, saying this duty fell to individual countries. . . . [T]he court said it would not issue a binding ruling on the matter, especially as only four of the 42 comparative states the court examined allowed active assisted suicide. Only three EU member countries – the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembou…