Disability Advocates in Massachusetts Conduct Legislative Briefing Against Assisted Suicide

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Today, John Kelly led a well attended legislative briefing by disability rights advocates who oppose the state’s assisted suicide bill, H 1991.  In anticipation of the legislative committee hearing on assisted  suicide scheduled in Massachusetts on Tuesday, October 27th, the briefing received some excellent news coverage:

Congratulations to all who presented and responded to questions today.

The hearing on Tuesday starts at 1:00 p.m. ET.  It is supposed tot be webcast here.

Below is the Media Advisory issued by Second Thoughts.

MEDIA ADVISORY                                      CONTACT

October 27, 2015                                           John Kelly 617-536-5140 

                                                                            JJ Hanson 850-377-5410 

Second Thoughts MA to be joined in opposing H 1991 by Second Thoughts CT and brain cancer survivor JJ Hanson. 

Disability rights activists from across the region will be speaking Tuesday before the Massachusetts legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health in opposition to H 1991, which would legalize assisted suicide in the state.  The hearing begins at 1 PM in Rooms A1/A2 at the State House.

As Second Thoughts director John Kelly told a legislative briefing at the Statehouse today, “The disability community is full of people who were judged terminal. For example, John Norton of Florence is sure he would have used assisted suicide were it legal in 1955 when he was diagnosed with ALS. 60 years later – the disease process stopped – he’s glad it wasn’t.”

In light of the Connecticut legislature’s repeated rejection of assisted suicide, Second Thoughts Connecticut member Stephen Mendelsohn will testify, “When legislators look at the details of these bills, they understand that legalizing doctor-prescribed suicide diminishes rather than enhances choice.”

Patients Rights Action Fund President JJ Hanson will be in Boston to testify “if assisted suicide becomes the social norm for terminally ill patients, those who want to fight to live will have their ability to survive taken from them.” Hanson, who was diagnosed with Grade 4 Glioblastome (GBM) and given 4  months to live in May 2014, is featured in the video “Man of Steel.” Hanson will be available for interviews Tuesday. He can be reached at (850) 377 5410.

Cathy Ludlum of Second Thoughts Connecticut will testify that “the harsh reality is that those of us with disabilities will be the collateral damage in any formalized death-by-choice system that is created.”

Numerous Massachusetts disability rights advocates will also testify against the bill. And Kelly noted that every major national disability rights organization that has taken a position on assisted suicide has opposed it.

Chicago Action Alert On Peter Singer: The Worst You Can Do

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ACTION ALERT

Peter Singer: The Worst You Can Do

On Saturday, October 24, the bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer will be delivering a lecture at Northwestern University in Evanston. The lecture is titled “The Most Good You Can Do.” Ironically Dr. Singer is well known for his views that people with severe disabilities do not lead lives worth living and it is better (and less expensive) just to let them die. Please check out this link for his latest statements asserting that health care should be denied to people with severe disabilities. Most notably, he has stated that society should acknowledge the necessity of “intentionally ending the lives of severely disabled infants.”

We at Access Living invite disability advocates and allies to join us in picketing Dr. Singer’s lecture, to let those in attendance know that his so-called “philosophy” is an attack on the lives of people with disabilities. The lecture series is a part of the Chicago Humanities Festival.

We join our friends at the national disability organization Not Dead Yet in holding that because society stigmatizes the lives of people with disabilities, it is far too easy to kill us or let us die with the assumption that we are a “burden” or “better off.” Assisted suicide practices, futility policies, “mercy killings,” and surrogate decisions are all expressions of society’s bias against people with disabilities.

If you want to join us to picket the lecture, please meet on Saturday at 2 pm at the west side of the Norris University Center at 1999 Campus Drive at Northwestern University, Evanston. We will picket until 4 pm. The actual lecture is from 2:30 to 3:30 pm and is sold out.

Please RSVP to Amber Smock, Director of Advocacy at Access Living, if you plan to attend this picket by emailing asmock@accessliving.org. 

To learn more about Dr. Singer and his views on people with disabilities, please see this link as well as the National Council on Disability’s April 2015 response to Dr. Singer’s advocacy of the killing of disabled babies at this link.

Thank you to our friends at Not Dead Yet for their resistance against society’s assumption that we are “better off dead.”

John Kelly Testifies for ASAN Bill in MA Prohibiting Disability Discrimination in Organ Transplant Eligibility

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On October 20, John Kelly submitted testimony on behalf of Second Thoughts Massachusetts and Not Dead Yet in support of H 3271, “An Act concerning nondiscrimination in access to organ transplantation.”

Not Dead Yet is proud to follow the leadership of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) on this issue. Lydia Brown of the Boston chapter of ASAN organized turnout for the hearing, and chapter coordinator Finn Gardiner testified in support of the bill. ASAN has put out a helpful advocates guide on nondiscrimination in organ transplantation, which can be found here.

John’s testimony follows below:

October 20, 2015

Chairs Lewis and Hogan, Members of the Public Health Committee:

I testify in favor of H 3271 on behalf of Second Thoughts Massachusetts and Not Dead Yet, state and national grassroots disability rights groups. We demand equal protection under the law for disabled people and oppose any discrimination justified by appeals to quality of life judgments.

This crucial bill will prevent discrimination against Massachusetts residents who would qualify as organ transplant recipients but for discrimination based on disability. We support the bill’s findings that “many individuals with disabilities still experience discrimination in accessing critical health care services,” and that “individuals with mental and physical disabilities have historically been denied life-saving organ transplants based on assumptions that their lives are less worthy,” or unfounded claims that disabled people cannot themselves maintain or have support systems maintain post transplant care regimens.

While our main focus is stopping assisted suicide laws, we have long fought for equal protection for disabled people when it comes to being improperly identified as a potential donor or denied eligibility as a transplant recipient.

For example, the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network’s proposed a plan to approach as possible donors newly spinal cord injured people receiving ventilation. The network wanted go to encourage people to decline the treatment and instead donate organs as part of a heroic suicide. We helped organize to stop the plan.

In 2012, we supported the Philadelphia toddler Amelia “Mia” Rivera’s right to receive equal consideration as a transplant recipient. Mia has the developmental disability Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Her parents were initially told that she could not receive a new kidney because of her quote unquote “mental retardation.”

We support the Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s leadership on this issue. The group has identified equally troubling cases of discrimination against other potential organ recipients.

Please pass this bill out of committee, it would provide necessary reassurance to people with disabilities who may need an organ transplant, and it could save lives that are just as worthy and valuable as every other life in Massachusetts.

Thank you very much.

NCIL’s Lindsay Baran & NDY’s Anne Sommers Collaborate on Op-Ed in Washington Examiner

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As NDY previously reported, Lindsay Baran of the National Council on Independent Living, Anne Sommers of NDY and several other disability advocates testified on July 10th against an assisted suicide bill pending before the District of Columbia Council Health and Human Services Committee.  The NDY blog on the DC hearing included a video of Anne Sommers’ testimony.  John Kelly also sent testimony and Diane Coleman a letter to the DC Committee, as reported here.

The bill remains pending, so Lindsay and Anne decided to collaborate on an op-ed, which was posted on October 19, 2015 in the Washington Examiner.  The full piece discusses a range of key issues, but here’s an excerpt on the disability aspects of assisted suicide data from Doctor-prescribed suicide is never the answer:

Although this whole ugly business seems far more palatable when such noble aims as pain mitigation are headlined, 17 years of available data do not bear out this claim. Oregon annual report data demonstrate that it’s social factors that propel assisted suicide requests. According to one study, “loss of autonomy” (92 percent), “less able to engage in activities” (89 percent), “loss of dignity” (80 percent), “loss of control of bodily functions” (50 percent), and “feelings of being a burden” (40 percent) were the main reasons patients said they wanted to commit suicide. Pain did not even break the top five.

It is dangerous business for public policy to tether dignity to independence. Functional loss and disability nearly always accompany a terminal diagnosis. Linking dignity to independence brands scores of people, including those who age into or acquire disabilities and who depend on others for personal care, as living undignified lives.

Legalizing assisted suicide sends the message that feeling like a burden is not only an acceptable reason for suicide, but a justification for our health care system to provide someone the lethal means. Assisted suicide laws reinforce the very societal prejudice that disability rights laws were meant to dismantle and shifts the focus from respecting and accommodating people with disabilities and illnesses to assisting them to die.

To read more, go to Doctor-prescribed suicide is never the answer.

NDY Files Statement With Canadian Panel on Carter Case

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On February 6, 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada issued a horrific ruling in the case of Carter v. Canada.  How horrific?  The Court held:

Section 241 (b) and s. 14  of the Criminal Code  unjustifiably infringe s. 7  of the Charter  and are of no force or effect to the extent that they prohibit physician‑assisted death for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.

The Court gave the Canadian Legislature one year to act on this ruling.  A federal panel was formed to gather input.  With the assistance of Toujours Vivant/Not Dead Yet Canada, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities submitted goals, principles and recommendations to the panel on October 7th.  Not Dead Yet (USA) submitted a Statement to the Canadian panel on October 14.  The Executive Summary of NDY’s Statement is below.

October 19 is the deadline for formal online submissions to the panel, but “Issue Book” submissions to the panel can be made until November 1st, by going to the panel’s web portal.

Statement of Not Dead Yet (USA) to Canadian Panel on Carter Case Decision

Executive Summary

Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination against old, ill and disabled people. Not Dead Yet helps organize and articulate opposition to these practices in the United States based on secular social justice arguments. Not Dead Yet also demands the equal protection of the law for the targets of so called “mercy killing” whose lives are seen as worth-less.

This submission to the External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. Canada will focus on the Panel’s “key issue” in Terms of Reference Section 3.2 (c): “Risks to individuals and society associated with physician-assisted dying.” We will discuss the evidence coming from Oregon, the earliest of the four U.S. states to legalize assisted suicide, and outline the concerns of the disability community.

Regardless of our abilities or disabilities, none of us should feel that we have to die to have dignity, that we have to die to be relieved of pain, or that we should die to stop burdening our families or society. The realities of assisted suicide implementation in Oregon and three other U.S. states demonstrate the urgency of limiting the harms done by the Canadian Supreme Court ruling.

With that goal, we have two recommendations:

  1. Adopt the detailed Goals, Principles and Recommendations submitted by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD),[i] which demonstrate a well-informed, evidence based and reasoned approach to reducing the dangers that will inevitably flow from implementation of Carter v. Canada. In order to completely incorporate CCD’s recommendations, direct consultation with a representative of CCD in drafting the legislation is necessary.
  1. Provide training, guidance and encouragement to law enforcement agencies to exercise their existing level of authority to prosecute physicians and others involved in an assisted suicide or euthanasia death, while allowing those prosecuted to defend themselves by proving that the guidelines submitted by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities were met.

[i] https://www.dropbox.com/s/izn5zr6rrazq5lj/ccdpolicyfinal150924.docx?dl=0