For Immediate Release
June 3, 2011
Contact:
Stephen Drake, Research Analyst
585-697-1640; sndrake@aol.com
Diane Coleman, President
708-420-0539; ndycoleman@aol.com
Disability Activists React to News of Kevorkian’s Death
Anti-euthanasia disability rights group formed in response to Kevorkian’s 1996 acquittal in deaths of two disabled women
Challenge members of the media to get their facts straight.
(Rochester, NY) Approximately ten years after his attorney filed the first of four annual appeals for early prison release repeatedly claiming Kevorkian had less than a year to live, Jack Kevorkian died today at the age of 83.
Today, speaking from their office in Rochester, NY, two spokespersons for the grassroots disability rights organization Not Dead Yet made the following statements:
“While it may be culturally correct to refrain from speaking ill of the dead, the fact is that like many other disability activists, I viewed Kevorkian as an opportunist and an exploiter of other people’s despair. Many chronically ill and disabled people got suicide assistance from him when some help ending social isolation, spousal or family abandonment, discrimination, and financial troubles would have led them to want to go on with their lives,” said Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake.
“As a disabled woman, I was disgusted and alarmed with how easily society accepted and even applauded Kevorkian’s “help” in the suicides of disabled women. Like many women, I’ve gone through periods of isolation and desperation – and was lucky to have friends see that I needed support,” said Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet. “It seems that when a disabled woman says she wants to kill herself that no one – not the Kevorkian juries, not the press, not even many people in the general public – look for reasons beyond the wheelchair the woman sits in as a valid reason for wanting to die.”
Drake added that the initial wave of press coverage announcing Kevorkian’s death has perpetuated the totally inaccurate description of Kevorkian’s body count as people who were “terminally ill.” He mentioned the New York Times, New York Magazine and Huffington Post as specific examples of sloppy and inaccurate reporting. In contrast, studies reported in such publications as the New England Journal of Medicine have concluded that seventy percent of those assisted by Kevorkian were disabled and not terminal.
Both Coleman and Drake attended the trial of Jack Kevorkian on second degree murder charges due to his televised killing of Thomas Youk through lethal injection. Youk had Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Not Dead Yet organized an ongoing courtroom presence as well as a daily vigil outside the Oakland County Courthouse, in which over 50 disability activists participated at one time or another.
Diane Coleman and Stephen Drake have written and lectured extensively on Jack Kevorkian, his history, and his importance to the pro-euthanasia movement. They are available for media interviews using the contact information at the top of this release.
About Not Dead Yet: Not Dead Yet was founded on April 27,1996, shortly after Jack Kevorkian was acquitted in the assisted suicides of two women with non-terminal disabilities. In a 1997 Supreme Court rally, the outcry of 500 people with disabilities chanting “Not Dead Yet” was heard around the world. Since then, eleven other national disability rights groups have joined NDY in opposing legalized assisted suicide, chapters have taken action in over 30 states, and we helped put Jack Kevorkian behind bars in 1999. Not Dead Yet continues to help lead and organize the disability community in resisting the legalization of assisted suicide, euthanasia and other public policy proposals that threaten the lives of people with disabilities.
Contact:
Not Dead Yet, 497 State Street, Rochester NY 14608
Phone: 585-697-1640
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That’s one less death pusher in our society today. I was glad to stand with NDY on the steps of the Supreme Court to protest the Quill v. Gluksburg attempt to decriminalize assisted suicide, knowing how that would be likely to further endanger the survival potentials of our community members. Complacency is deadly and that is why we must remain ever vigilantly involved. Thanks for all you do.
As usual Stephen, I liked the statements you made about Jack Kevorkian. They were spot on.
I’m afraid that the message of Ms. Coleman was tainted by a knee-jerk feminism. No one has any reason to believe that Jack Kevorkian’s actions, and the actions of others to promote assisted suicide, were in any way motivated or even affected by gender. Invoking gender in this context dilutes the authentic vulnerablity of certain groups of people (physically/mentally disabled, old, sick, terminally ill, etc.) to assisted suicide with a lame form of identity politics.
It’s a shame because if you take the “she” and the “he” and the “man” and the “woman” out of her statements, the real point of her message would emerge much more clearly.
Kevorkian died 10 years after he claimed to have a year left to live. this only shows how well his ability was at diagnosing a terminal illness. May the peace of God disturb him.
I really do appreciate the fact that you are out there advocating for our group. Please do let me know when you’re planning to hold another protest in D.C. or in Northern Virginia.
Sincerely,
Victoria DeLacy
Roger – Diane’s comments were more than playing identity politics. One key tactic in getting a reporter’s attention and getting a chance to be included in the coverage is to establish one’s authority – as an expert or as a member of the group being talked about.
Pro assisted suicide groups do this all the time. They make sure they have people who have been diagnosed as terminally ill on hand as well as family members of individuals who either died a hard death or who used assisted suicide.
Diane was establishing her similarity to what would be the most “typical” Kevorkian “client” – a nonterminally disabled woman.
It’s the same reason I get put forward when the subject as Peter Singer – the doctor who delivered me thought I’d be better off dead. My life story becomes relevant even to someone as dense as a reporter.