Progressive and Disability Opposition to Assisted Suicide Covered in The New Journal

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It’s very rare to see even lengthy articles about assisted suicide include more than relatively brief acknowledgement of opposing voices from the disability community and rarer still from other progressives. Therefore, we were impressed to see the Yale University student newspaper, The New Journal, publish an extensive pro/con article by Anouk Yeh featuring substantial discussion with Connecticut leaders Joan Cavanagh and Cathy Ludlum representing Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide and Second Thoughts CT, respectively. Short excerpts from The Debate for Dignity‘s segments opposing assisted suicide laws are below and the whole article can be read HERE.

Progressive Opposition

When I meet Joan Cavanagh, she makes two things very clear. First, her concerns about aid in dying aren’t religious. Second, while she has always been opposed to aid in dying, or assisted suicide, as opponents of the procedure call it, she only started “militantly fighting” against its legalization after her mother’s passing.

Long silver hair and a pair of black, rectangular glasses frame Joan’s face. The first time we meet, I’m intimidated by her incisive, no-frills demeanor—she’s terrifyingly articulate and emails without exclamation points. Throughout our meeting, though, I find myself warming up to her vulnerability and occasional jokes.

Joan is one of the founding members of Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS), a Connecticut-based grassroots organization fighting SB 1076 and variations of the bill that have come before it. PAMAS opposes aid in dying on the basis that its legalization would inevitably lead to its weaponization against economically, socially, and racially marginalized individuals.

It, along with other organizations, has been fighting to “provide a path for leftists and progressives who have social justice concerns” about aid in dying and to disrupt the notion that the opposition is exclusively religious and conservative….

***

Disability Rights Opposition

According to Cathy Ludlum, a disability rights activist, there is a long history of the medical industrial complex turning to assisted suicide to avoid accountability for bettering palliative care for terminally ill and disabled individuals. Cathy, a longtime Manchester, CT resident, founded Second Thoughts Connecticut, a disability rights organization fighting against the state legalization of aid in dying.

After a few back and forth emails, the two of us finally hop on a video call together. Cathy uses a wheelchair and joins our conversation clad in thin-rimmed glasses and a toothy grin. In the middle of exchanging introductions, Cathy turns from the Zoom camera and directs her voice towards her computer.

“Computer, wake up. Mouse click. Mouse 5…674.”

Refined by years of practice, Cathy navigates her computer exclusively using voice commands. When I ask Cathy how she started organizing against medical aid in dying, she jumps in and asks me to use the term “assisted suicide” instead.

“Medical aid in dying as a term, really, is misleading,” Cathy says. “If someone is assisting someone in their transition [to death], that would be hospice—assisting the person to be comfortable in their health, alleviating anxiety, existential concerns, and clinical concerns.”

…I look at Cathy, who’s sitting in her wheelchair, and her implicit argument becomes clear: If assisted suicide is legalized, my life and right to live become at risk.

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The whole article can be read HERE.

Farewell, but not Goodbye! A Message from Jules

Our News & Commentary Blog

Hi everyone,

I’m onto the next adventure! A quick video to let you know why I’m leaving my current position at NDY, what I’ve learned, and where I’m going next. Don’t be a stranger! Follow me on Instagram and Threads @djenderbender .  See you around!

Transcript

Hello, and welcome back to the Not Dead Yet vlog. My name is Jules Good, I use they/them pronouns, I’m a white person with short blonde and brown hair, I have a nose piercing and I’m wearing a plaid button-down shirt. And behind me, perched on the back of my chair, is my bird, Chompers. He is a gray cockatiel with a yellow head and orange cheek circles . And for one last time, I am the assistant director and policy analyst at Not Dead Yet.

That’s right, my friends, as of October, I am stepping down from my role to pursue other opportunities. I’d like to tell you about what I learned, why I’m leaving, and where I’m going next. This role has been an incredible learning and growing experience for me. I came to Not Dead Yet with a piecemeal background in community organizing, policy advocacy and analysis, assistive tech, and accessibility consulting. Since then, I’ve had the privilege to be a part of advocacy against assisted suicide in several states and the opportunity to reframe discussions around assisted suicide to get a younger and more diverse array of people and organizations involved in this fight. I have learned so much from people who have been doing this work for longer than I’ve been alive , and I am eternally grateful for all of the knowledge, mentorship and care they have passed on to me.

So why am I leaving? Well, to start, not many people know this, but I’m only 23 . I am at the wee beginnings of my career and longing to sink my teeth into a wider variety of issues. I’d also be lying if I said a year of doing this work full time hasn’t taken a toll on my already not so great mental health. Being surrounded by murder and suicide and constantly pleading for the basic needs of vulnerable people is not for the faint of heart, even with the support of an amazing team of colleagues. When I really sat and thought about my ability to engage with this crucial work for the foreseeable future, I realized I needed more balance between focusing on this issue and the myriad other issues that impact it, like health care, racial justice, and societal ableism. That’s why I’ve decided to work with Not Dead Yet in a small part-time capacity until someone takes my current role, at which point I will continue to advocate against assisted suicide in my personal capacity.

My next adventure is as the programs associate for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which I could not be more excited about. I have looked up to ASAN for years and the opportunity to help grow their grassroots organizing work is super exciting. I am so thrilled to work with a team of fellow autistic people approaching this work with an intersectional lens.

Before I close out, I have several people to thank. John Kelly, thank you for your incredible work fighting against assisted suicide in Massachusetts. Your intellect, zest, and humor have taught me so much about how to effectively organize around this issue. I am so grateful for your leadership. Ellen, Pam, Brian, and Mary from Second Thoughts Massachusetts. Thank you for welcoming me with open arms to your meetings, for cheering me on, and most importantly, for constantly showing up to do this really difficult work. I look up to you all. Anita Cameron, thank you for being the most badassed organizer I know. You do this work from a place of deep love and passion, and you have touched so many people through your advocacy. You have made me a more thoughtful activist and I appreciate you deeply. Diane Coleman, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you , for your mentorship over this last year or so. When I first told people I was working for Not Dead Yet, they gushed about you, and I absolutely see why. You are so brilliant and your intellect and passion shine through in everything you do. You have taught me so much about strategy, policy analysis, and the power of community organizing. I know I will use everything you’ve taught me in my work for the rest of my career.

And lastly, to the faithful hundred or so folks who watch these videos, thank you. Your feedback and discussions about the content have given me so much to think about. Knowing that I’m not just shouting this information into the void has given me hope on darker days. Please continue to share these videos far and wide, talk to your people about disability justice, and follow Not Dead Yet on social media to stay up to date on how you can get involved with advocating around the crucial issue of assisted suicide.

I would really love to stay connected with y’all as I move onto the next big thing. You can find me on Instagram and Threads @djenderbender, and that’s spelt D-J-E-N-D-E-R-B-E-N-D-E-R. I’m also hoping to start making video content about disability issues on my own YouTube channel. if you follow my other social media, I’ll post links there. Thank you so much for watching and for all of your support over this last year. See you soon.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network: “Our Lives are Worth Living”

Our News & Commentary Blog

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) has long opposed assisted suicide. This section on their website under “What We Believe” explains why:

“There are a lot of practices in medicine that discriminate against disabled people. Some hospitals won’t give organ transplants or other life-saving medical treatments to people with disabilities. They don’t see it as “worth the effort” to try to keep us alive. Some doctors even help disabled people die from suicide instead of trying to help save our lives. They might try to convince disabled people that suicide is the best option for us. ASAN believes disabled lives are worth living. Doctors need to focus on making our lives better instead of acting like we are better off dead.

Medical research can also treat disabled lives like they are worth less than non-disabled lives. An example of this is Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). QALYs try to calculate the “value” of each year of life based on what disabilities a person has. For example, the value of each year of a non-disabled person’s life is 1, but someone with a disability will always have a number that is less than 1. This measure isn’t fair to people with disabilities. Our lives have as much value as non-disabled people’s lives. Research should focus on how to accommodate us instead of devaluing us.”

The “Healthcare” section on this page has a lot of valuable insight about healthcare policies aligned with disability justice principles. You can read more here.

Anita Cameron: Don’t Be Fooled, Assisted Suicide IS Suicide

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Suicide is devastating. Take it from someone who has lost dear friends to it. It’s an especially difficult death for families to deal with. Loved ones often feel guilt, wondering was there anything they could have done to prevent it. I, too, felt that horror and guilt after learning that a close friend had died by suicide hours after visiting me.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that suicide is a serious public health issue whose rates have increased approximately 36% between 2000–2021. It reports that suicide was responsible for 49,476* deaths in 2022.

Many resources exist to inform the public about suicide – what it is, it’s impact on the country and on certain communities, the signs to watch for and how to prevent it – but no resource addresses the state sanctioned suicide masquerading as health care, that proponents call medical aid in dying, but opponents call by its true name: assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is a practice legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia, where a doctor, or in some states, a physician assistant, writes a prescription for a lethal drug that terminally ill patients – those with six months or less, to live – fill and subsequently take. No doctor or witness is required to be present, so no one would know if the medication was purposely taken or if the person was coerced or convinced to do so.

Proponents say that this is not suicide, but the Oxford Dictionary of English lists the definition of suicide as “the action of killing oneself intentionally.” Proponents refuse to call assisted suicide what it actually is, probably due to the stigma associated with suicide. One can call it all kinds of fancy terms that hide the truth, but don’t be fooled – assisted suicide IS suicide.

Though assisted suicide is supposedly only for those who are terminally ill, it’s hard to predict that, so doctors often make mistakes. There are countless stories of people living years or even decades beyond their doctors’ predictions.

Assisted suicide creates a two-tiered system where younger, healthier folks expressing thoughts of harming themselves are more likely to get mental health treatment whether they want it or not, while disabled people, who often lack access to such care, are more likely to have suicidal feelings rationalized, so are less likely to receive mental health treatment.

This is especially important when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness. It’s normal to become depressed after such a diagnosis. Mental health counseling, along with other services and supports should be offered from the beginning and tailored to meet the person’s changing needs.

Proponents rename assisted suicide as “aid in dying” so it sounds like end of life care. However, it is not. End of life care is all of the services and supports, including pain management, that a person needs to be as comfortable as possible while the dying process takes place naturally. Assisted suicide is just that – suicide. Death. No care.

It’s said that access to housing, healthcare, clean water and food security is suicide prevention. Getting rid of assisted suicide as public policy is also suicide prevention.

*2022 Suicide statistics provided by WomenOnGuard.com

Belated Note: Diane Coleman’s Letter Published in Finger Lakes Times

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[From August 28, 2023]

Assisted suicide in NY a poor idea

To the Editor:

It’s ironic that Joel Freedman’s Aug. 14 essay promoting assisted suicide laws opens by noting the need to “strengthen the rights of nursing home residents and other care-dependent people.” People are too often dumped into nursing facilities by hospitals and sometimes, sadly, by families, never to escape again, their choices taken away.

Yet Freedman’s article ignores that reality and claims that assisted suicide laws only operate in the context of individuals who can count on the privileges of loving families, covered healthcare treatments, and quality palliative care.

I’m a disabled person who uses a breathing mask and motorized wheelchair and just turned 70. I’m still working, partly to pay for the uncovered care I need. I know two individuals, both African American women, who dealt with severe pain for at least two years before doctors were forced to recognize their mistakes and take steps to address the damage done.

Studies on healthcare disparities demonstrate that the system cannot be trusted to provide equal treatments without regard to race, disability, or age. More specifically in the context of assisted suicide laws, doctors cannot reliably predict how long we have to live, nor are they privy to the family pressures to “get on with it” that may arise behind closed doors.

Doctors are gifted to be able to save lives, but there are too many failures and economic pressures in the healthcare system to add assisted suicide to the treatment list.

DIANE COLEMAN

Rochester [NY]