I meant to get this all up a little earlier, but life and exhaustion interfered a little with those plans. Below are links to coverage and commentary I recommend highly regarding the Stephen Hawking/assisted suicide kerfuffle:
On Wednesday, September 18th, I participated in a 10-minute live exchange with Barbara Coombs Lee of Compassion and Choices. The show was Consider This which airs on weekday nights at 10 to 11 pm ET on Al Jazeera America. While we covered a fair amount of territory regarding Stephen Hawking and assisted suicide laws, the available video is limited to a discussion of Barbara Mancini, who is facing assisted suicide charges in Pennsylvania, arguably the least interesting (to me, anyway) part of the show. You can view the excerpt at “Should family members face criminal charges?”
Earlier this week, I referenced a 2002 article in the Chicago Reader written by media critic and journalist Mike Miner about some issues Not Dead Yet took on in the Chicago area that year. Miner was motivated to revisit that same piece and to attempt to pick through the messy issues presenting themselves over the last week regarding Stephen Hawking and my own reaction on the blog to his endorsement of legalization of assisted suicide. He starts with some kind words about me in “When to pull the plug – or should we ever?”
Two friends in the disability community have written blog posts reacting to the Stephen Hawking announcement. They are both distinctly different from the reaction posted here. Both are thoughtful, well-written and – I hope this is clear – worth your time to read.
NDY board member, anthropologist, academic and activist Bill Peace writes about Stephen Hawking’s unusual status – one of extreme privilege and serious disability – and how it might affect his perspective in “Stephen Hawking on Assisted Suicide.”
Gary Presley is, in his own words, an “essayist, book reviewer, and author of Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio.” Gary reflects on pain, logic, and spirituality in “A Logical Death.”
Compassion and Choices is certainly milking Stephen Hawking’s remarks for all its worth: https://www.facebook.com/CompassionandChoicesConnecticut https://www.facebook.com/CompassionandChoices https://www.facebook.com/CompassionandChoicesMontana Good to see this response.
Unfortunately, Compassion and Choices always seems to have the funding to take advantage of stories like this. I am not opposed to Compassion and Choices for the message that they send but I am opposed to their failure to support “the right to live” if this right hasn’t been taken away by some “due process” procedure that deems that the treatment that a patient WANTS is medically futile. I wonder where they get their funding?? Does any of it come from MBA’s in the for-profit health care system who want the elderly on Medicare to die just as soon as possible in order to protect the profit margins of Big Insurance??
Stephen Hawking supports due process and says that there must be measures to ensure that assisted suicide isn’t abused but he must KNOW that his government will never fund protective measures, and abuses will go undiscovered —-much like the abuse of DNR Code Status in the United States which shortens the lives of elderly/disabled patients without their informed consent when the hospitals/physicians KNOW that any further treatment will Not be reimbursed.by Medicare and the private big insurers.
Stephen Hawking must know that the UK just abandoned their end-of-life program called The Liverpool Pathway because the UK free press reported that some old/disabled people were put to death earlier than necessary just because they were elderly/disabled and couldn’t defend themselves against the system who thought they were better off dead.
Compassion and Choices always push legalized Assisted Suicide, the fastest and cheapest way for the State, the patient, and the family, but they neglect to educate patients about the 1991 PSDA that permits a “form” of legal suicide in that patients can freely elect to Fast unto Death when they are terminal and ELECT to use the Hospice Entitlement. Fasting unto death is not as fast as assisted suicide (six to twelve days) but it is a truly autonomous decision that is reaffirmed each day of the fast until the patient sleeps unto death after pain medication is needed and started.