Not Dead of Texas Issues Statement on Chris Dunn “Futility” Case

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This is a followup to yesterday’s post about Chris Dunn.

Not Dead Yet of Texas has issued a released a release regarding the “futility” decision being fought by the family of Chris Dunn.

For Immediate Release

Not Dead Yet of Texas has for the last 3 legislative sessions supported amending the Futile Care language in the
Texas Advanced Directive Act that allows medical professionals to override the wishes of the individual and/or family members.
The time frames in the law give almost no protection to the individual while medical professionals are protected against any
litigation. It is said and true that you get more protections in law on death row in Texas than you do in Texas hospitals.

This very wrenching contentious issue is usually framed as religious zealots vs medical professionals. Not Dead Yet of Texas
believes that in most cases it is a disability/civil rights issue.

We are currently reaching out to ascertain the facts of the Chris Dunn case.

You can reach Not Dead Yet of Texas by emailing him: bob.adapt@sbcglobal.net

For more info on futility polices check this archive.

For more on Not Dead Yet of Texas, check here and here.

New Futility Case in Texas

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It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything on it, but futile care policies have been an area of concern for NDY and other disability rights groups for many years. Things have been quiet for awhile, which isn’t really good news. We only hear about futile care issues if a family goes public – reaching out to us, the press or some other group for assistance in fighting involuntary withholding and or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a family member.

The embedded video above is a news story aired on KTRK in Houston TX.  Below is an excerpt from the written story on the same page:

HOUSTON (KTRK) —

A local mother filed a lawsuit in an effort to save her son’s life.

Chris Dunn, 46, is on a breathing machine now at Houston Methodist Hospital, receiving life-sustaining treatment. Doctors there think it is best to stop that treatment, but his mother, Evelyn Kelly, is fighting for his life.

Dunn has been in the hospital for 8 weeks because of a mass on his pancreas. His major organs are deteriorating and the hospital wants to stop life-sustaining treatment.

“It’s a mother’s nightmare because they want to come in and they want to turn his life support off and administer some kind of drug,” Kelly said. “I don’t even know what it is.”

Kelly contacted Texas Right to Life and Attorney Joe Nixon for help.

“There’s a statute in Texas that allows hospitals to form a nameless, faceless committee and make a decision that they want to terminate life-sustaining care,” Nixon said.

Kelly shot cell phone video on December 2 inside her son’s hospital room. In the video, Nixon asks Chris is he wants to live.

“Do you want to stay alive?” Nixon asks.

Chris cannot speak because of a breathing tube, but he nods his head and folds his hands in prayer.

There are more questions here than answers. The station’s news report doesn’t dispute that Chris Dunn, the individual the hospital wants to take off life support, is conscious. If his organs are really breaking down, death would be fairly imminent. Why the rush to deprive him of what may be days or weeks. Hate to think it, but maybe it’s money. According to the family, Dunn was without health insurance when he fell ill. We’ll be following this.

Two New Posts by Bill Peace at “Bad Cripple”

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NDY board member Bill Peace has been writing more on his blog Bad Cripple. Two of his recent posts last 2 touch directly on NDY concerns.

In You Can’t do That, he describes the ways in which individuals and society focus hard on what he “can’t” do:

The instant negativity attached to disability is raised to a higher level when serious, life threatening illness is at issue. Cancer is bad. All illness is bad. Terminal illness is the worst–a tragedy. Terminal illness is the worst because our very existence is threatened. For some, the response to mortality is primal fear. Fear I get. I have felt primal fear and have had life threatening illnesses. I have almost died more than once. Primal fear however can be overcome with reason.

Read the rest here.

In The Disability Experience, he discusses the weirdnesses – from the annoying to the scary – in being a disabled person in this culture:

It saddens me that the input of people with a disability is so often ignored or dismissed out of hand. When I assert that assisted suicide legislation represents a serious risk to people with a disability, the elderly, and terminally ill I am accused as having an agenda. Sorry but no. I have no agenda. I have an educated opinion based on a detailed knowledge of disability history that should be part of the discussion about assisted suicide legislation. I also grew up on various neurological wards as a child and learned a few things about how hospitals operate. I had a physician offer to end my suffering by foregoing life saving antibiotics. Like many others with a disability, I have something important others need to hear. Don’t talk to me about safe guards built in to assisted suicide legislation. Don’t talk to me about dignity. Don’t talk to me about autonomy.

Read the rest of it here.

 

 

This Thanksgiving, Please Thank CDR for Fighting NY Assisted Suicide Bills

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[Editor’s Note: The Center for Disability Rights provides the office headquarters for NDY and is a long time supporter of NDY’s mission and work.  Earlier this year, CDR led a disability protest in Albany against the first 2015 assisted suicide bill to be introduced, gaining coverage in the Village Voice.  Now that proponents for legalizing assisted suicide have declared New York to be their number one target state, CDR wants to hire a staff person in Albany who will focus on defeating this dangerous public policy.  Please donate to CDR’s “GoFundMe” project to make this possible.  Below is CDR’s request for your urgently needed support.]

Who Are We?
The Center for Disability Rights is a disability-led service and advocacy organization that works for the rights of people with disabilities of all ages to live in the community.

What Do We Want?
Now that California has legalized assisted suicide, assisted suicide proponents have identified New York State as the next battleground for legalizing this awful, deadly practice. The battle will be fought in Albany, and in meetings across the state. We need to hire a person to represent the Disability Community in Albany and across the state. This GoFundMe campaign will help us to hire that person.

Why Oppose Assisted Suicide?
Assisted suicide is a deadly expression of ableism — the belief that people with disabilities are less than non-disabled people. Less worthy of care. Having less dignity. Less worthy of life. These beliefs are all around us. Whether we are old or young, terminal or not terminal, when assisted suicide is legal, these discriminatory beliefs will cause people with disabilities to be killed against their will and without their consent.

How Will The Money Be Used?
We will use the money to hire an advocate who is passionate about defeating assisted suicide in New York. This campaign will pay for the salary and benefits of an advocate, as well as his or her expenses to travel to events around the state; talk about why a public policy of legalizing assisted suicide is dangerous to old, ill, and disabled people; pitch stories to media organizations; and coordinate with other advocates on presenting the disability perspective on assisted suicide to policymakers. The advocate will also work on creating and promoting a public awareness campaign to show a positive vision of living with a disability in the community.

When Do You Need the Money?
We hope to hire this advocate early in January 2016, before the legislative session opens. Accordingly, we have about six weeks to raise the money to pay for their  salary and expenses.

Why Does This Matter To You?
This matters to us because it will be our people, people with disabilities, who lose their lives if assisted suicide is legalized are killed. Not every person with a disability has a terminal illness, and doctors are notoriously unreliable in predicting when someone will die. But every person who has a terminal illness has a disability, or will acquire a disability before they die. Where assisted suicide is legal, an heir (someone who stands to inherit from the person) or abusive caregiver may steer someone towards assisted suicide, witness the request, pick up the lethal dose, and even give the drug — no witnesses are required at the death, so who would know? That is discrimination made deadly, and deadly discrimination made legal.

Aren’t You Overstating Your Case?
No. Assisted suicide has been legal in Oregon for seventeen years. Researchers and the mainstream media identified multiple cases in Oregon of people with disabilities and older adults being pushed by family members or other “caregivers” to request a lethal prescription, or being “assisted” to take the lethal dose without any independent witnesses or proof that the person consented at the time. Proponents of assisted suicide claim that the Oregon law is working perfectly: that is only true if by working perfectly they mean that it is killing some people without consent and without any action from the state.

To support this critical effort, go to CDR’s GoFundMe.

Stephen Mendelsohn: CT Suicide Prevention Plan 2020 Includes Concerns About Disability & Assisted Suicide

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[Editor’s Note:  This Guest Blog is from Stephen Mendelsohn, one of the leaders of Second Thoughts Connecticut.]

This is likely a first from the mainstream suicide prevention community:  The Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board (CTSAB) recognizes that legalizing assisted suicide encourages people with disabilities to commit suicide.  Here’s the relevant excerpt from the State of Connecticut Suicide Prevention Plan 2020 at p. 44:   
 

People with Chronic Health Conditions and Disabilities

Living with chronic or terminal physical conditions can place significant stress on individuals and families. As with all challenges, individual responses will vary. Cancer, degenerative diseases of the nervous system, traumatic injuries of the central nervous system, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, chronic kidney disease, arthritis and asthma are known to elevate the risk of mental illness, particularly depression and anxiety disorders.

In these situations, integrated medical and behavioral approaches are critical for regularly assessing for suicidality.  Disability-specific risk factors include: a new disability or change in existing disability; difficulties navigating social and financial services; stress of chronic stigma and discrimination; loss or threat of loss of independent living; and institutionalization or hospitalization.

Until recently, the CTSAB was considering assisted suicide of the terminally ill as a separate issue from suicide prevention. The active disability community in Connecticut, however, has been vocal on the need for suicide prevention services for people with disabilities. There may be unintended consequences of assisted suicide legislation on people with disabilities. Peace (2012)** writes that “Many assume that disability is a fate worse than death. So we admire people with a disability who want to die, and we shake our collective heads in confusion when they want to live.”

People with disabilities have a right to responsive suicide prevention services. The CTSAB intends to continue to explore the needs of the disability community for such services.

Targeted Recommendations:

  • Develop greater scrutiny of someone’s intentions to die.
  • Identify and train practitioners to develop expertise in the work with disabled people who are suicidal.
  • Do not “assume” suicide is a “rational” response to disability.
  • Treat mental health conditions as aggressively as with a person without disability.
  • CTSAB should encourage and increase participation from the disability community and encourage educational presentations.

Cathy Ludlum presented our issues to the CTSAB back in March 2014 and it appears they have taken our concerns about disability discrimination in suicide prevention seriously.  Second Thoughts Connecticut is now listed on their website as a member. Other states still need our input into their state suicide prevention plans to include the disability perspective.  Some states, such as Oregon and Washington (the first two states to legalize assisted suicide), have state suicide prevention plans that only focus on youth while ignoring elder suicide.  Our success in Connecticut can be useful not only in encouraging a change in other states’ suicide prevention policies, but in making our case that what Compassion & Choices calls “aid in dying” is suicide that should be treated no differently merely because the person affected is old, ill, or disabled.

** This refers to the Hastings Center article by Bill Peace, an NDY Board member, entitled Comfort Care As Denial of Personhood.