Yesterday’s Joke Becoming Today’s Reality – Death Row and Assisted Suicide

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Back on April 1, 1998 I sent out an obviously bogus press release from an email address I reserved for just such purposes.  It was an attempt at some (I thought) outrageous satire, taking pro-assisted suicide arguments based on “quality of life” to one of their many logical conclusions.  What would happen, I wondered, when civil libertarians opposed to the death penalty found that position in conflict with their support of assisted suicide.  I didn’t doubt for a minute which would win out.

Here’s my fiction from 13 years ago:

Los Angeles – April 1, 1998
Affiliated Press

    At a press conference today, the American Civil Liberties Union Announced
it would be supporting the request of a death row prisoner to obtain assisted
suicide.  Sid Nasty, who has been on death row for 5 years awaiting the outcome
of appeals in his death sentence in the slaying of 5 girl scouts, has applied
for assistance in committing suicide.
   Nasty, in an appeal filed yesterday, contends that his present quality of
life is unacceptable and seeks to voluntarily end his “suffering” and
“meaningless existence”.  Nasty says that even if his death sentence is
commuted, the best he can hope for is a life sentence with no hope for parole.
   Nasty, in a taped presentation, explained: “Hell, I figure the ACLU has
helped cripples in nursing homes to escape being locked up with no hope of
parole.  Why should they get the right to die and I don’t?  The food may be a
little better in here than in a nursing home, but aside from that, it’s pretty
much the same”.
   This action of the ACLU stands in stark contrast to its actions in the case
of Gary Gilmore, who asked that all appeals on his behalf be withdrawn so he
could be executed by a firing squad.  The ACLU argued that Gilmore was
depressed by the circumstances of his incarceration and could not be making an
informed choice in the matter.  ACLU spokesperson Sol Phistry explained that
the ACLU was firm in opposing the death penalty then and now.
   “Nasty’s appeals for a commutation of sentence will stay in place.  Gillmore
was asking for the state to execute him.  Nasty is asking the state to allow
him to release himself from an untenable existence.  He will be administering
the lethal injection to himself, not some flunkie hired by the prison.  This is
about choice.
   “Jack Kevorkian, a pioneer in the right to die, said it best; to paraphrase
him: “The voluntary self-elimination of murderers, rapists and other felons,
taken collectively can only serve to enhance the public health and welfare.” (emphasis added.)

Who says I don’t have a whimsical side?

One one of the email lists this got posted two, an ACLU board member (don’t remember if it was a state or the national board) commented that the author had an “overactive imagination.”

Well, here’s today’s news – from the state of Oregon.  In fact, it’s from Portland Tribune reporter Peter Korn – the same reporter and same paper that exposed the Oregon Board of Nursing as a sham – that consistently protected the jobs and licenses of nurses over the health and welfare of patients.

This latest story is titled Three Needles.  Six Minutes.  The End.

Excerpt:

T. Allen Bethel has met his exception. A gentle and thoughtful man, Bethel is senior pastor of Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland. He and other Portland-area clergy are well aware that on Aug. 16 the state Department of Corrections is scheduled to put convicted killer Gary Haugen to death in the first Oregon state execution in 14 years.
Most members of the local faith community who take up the highly charged issue these days speak out against the death penalty, though there are certainly clergy on both sides.
Proponents and opponents know that the issue is framed differently here because Oregon is also home to physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.
Physician-assisted suicide essentially allows individuals to say they would rather die than live in circumstances they cannot bear. Haugen went to Marion County Circuit Court to ask that he be put to death rather than live out his life in the Oregon State Penitentiary.
When he considers those two ideas, Bethel, a staunch opponent of capital punishment, says maybe Haugen should get his wish.
“My belief is, I would fight for his life,” Bethel says. “But each of us has the right to say what I want or do not want done with my body.”
Oregon’s lethal injection execution system uses three sterilized needles and takes about six minutes for the combination of drugs to kill the prisoner. The state has used the lethal injection method since Oregon’s capital punishment was reinstated in 1984. Prior to that, Oregon executed prisoners for many years in a gas chamber.

There’s more from another member of the clergy that goes farther:

…the Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopéz, pastor at Ainsworth United Church of Christ in Alameda, says she’s pretty sure most of her congregation are against it. As for her personal view, Lopéz says, “I’ve always been against the death penalty and always will be, I’m sure.”

Lopéz believes that everyone is redeemable and that putting someone to death denies that possibility.
“What I have to believe is that everybody has good in them,” Lopéz says. “We are created in the image of God. …We can be broken, but I also believe we can be healed and be made whole. Some people maybe have to be kept away from society to protect themselves and others, but I just cannot give up on them as human beings.”
As for Haugen asking for his own execution, Lopéz admits to equivocation.
“I’d rather we then say, ‘It’s OK if he wants physician-assisted suicide, but not put to death in an execution.’ ” (emphasis added.)

OK – so this isn’t about the ACLU, but about members of the clergy in Oregon.  To be fair, there is a spread of opinion in that community reflected in the article.  But in the two I’ve highlighted – especially in the case of  Rev. Lopéz – the logic in terms of being OK with the wish to die based on a “quality of life” argument is virtually identical to my April Fools press release from 1998.

Come to think of it, I haven’t heard of the ACLU filing in opposition to a prisoner who wanted appeals to their execution stopped.

It makes sense – we have a group of people that are shunned, devalued, and increasing numbers of taxpayers see as an unnecessary drain on public resources.  Only this time, we’re talking about death row prisoners instead of old, ill and disabled people.  I can see people becoming more comfortable with this idea, just as seems to be the case with applauding and encouraging the suicides of old, ill and disabled people.

I’d better be careful when I write phony “outrageous” press releases in the future.  Or at least redefine what “outrageous” means to me.  –Stephen Drake

UK – Dominic Lawson: Why the disabled fear assisted suicide

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The following are excerpts from an excellent piece by columnist Dominic Lawson.  He arranged to visit SCOPE, the UK disability charity that published the results of a survey earlier this year, finding that 70% of disabled respondents expressed concerns about their own safety if assisted suicide was legalized in the UK.

Lawson was allowed to watch and listen to a focus group – one of many SCOPE is conducting to get more qualitative data – through a one-way glass.  From comments Lawson makes in his column, I’m assuming that group participants were informed of his observation, although I’d like it stated a little more clearly.

The following are excerpts from Lawson’s column in the June 14th edition of The Independent.  It’s titled Why the disabled fear assisted suicide:

Last month Scope released one of the results, a poll by ComRes, which revealed that no fewer than 70 per cent of disabled people are concerned that the changes in the law advocated by Pratchett would create pressure on vulnerable patients to “end their lives prematurely”. Scope has also been conducting focus groups of people with cerebral palsy, in order to add qualitative research to the quantitative findings of pollsters; the charity invited me to attend one of these encounters, and to observe many hours of such discussions from behind one-way glass alongside a group of its full-time employees.

The bulk of the column is devoted to stories about threats already being encountered, fear of an uncertain future and even fear of one’s own family.  The following is almost at the end of Lawson’s column:

The opinions expressed by “Bill” and Andy had a striking effect on Valerie Lang, a 71-year-old from Islington in north London. Valerie admitted that her mind had been “substantially changed” by what she had heard. At the end of the meeting she said: “I know there will come a time when my body won’t have given out, but my patience jolly well will; and I will want to go to Dignitas when that happens. But I have been reminded of how vulnerable people, less strong-minded than me, can be open to suggestion.” 
Valerie had told the group earlier that she had spent 20 years “falling in and out of depression” until therapy had enabled her to come to terms with her cerebral palsy. Since then she had had a remarkable life, despite her severe disability: she had become a senior research officer in the Civil Aviation Authority’s Economics Division and since her retirement had, as she put it, “sat on many committees, but have now reduced these to about six”. It is easy to see how under a system of legalised assisted suicide, Valerie’s earlier years of depression at her condition might well have been ended; and as Richard Hawkes points out, “the thing about suicide is that it doesn’t allow for second thoughts”. 
Something else Valerie said at the meeting struck me as dreadfully sad: “When I was younger, if I fell over in the street two or three people would always rush to pick me up. Now people just walk past. I am no longer even part of the scenery.” 

That is the state of mind, on both sides, in which assisted suicide for the severely physically disabled could so insidiously turn from being a liberating option into something more like an oppressive social obligation.

The only thing I’ll add here is that the way that Valerie gets ignored when she falls over in the street these strikes me as more than “sad.”  It strikes me as one more symptom of a (nondisabled) population that view us with disdain, scorn and even resentment.

Please read the rest for yourself by clicking here.  –Stephen Drake

Disability Activists in the UK Push Back Against BBC and Terry Pratchett Promotion of Assisted Suicide

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Our disabled allies in the UK are currently experiencing – and fighting against – a potentially deadly assault on their lives and freedom.  The UK Government proposes to severely cut the many parts of the social safety net that disabled people of all ages depend on to live – and many just barely managing on current supports.  At the same time, the pro-euthanasia campaign seems to be increasing in power – both politically and in the media.

It sounds a little like the United States, doesn’t it?

Truthfully, people in the US who are old, ill, poor and/or disabled haven’t gotten to feel the full brunt of the budget axe yet, but we can see it coming.  I reckon we’re a year or two at most until we’re really facing the realities of what are now merely threats (for the most part).  And – especially after the non-stop eulogizing of Kevorkian over the past couple of weeks, we can certainly feel the sentiment in terms of legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide gaining ground.  And it looks like there are more people who are willing to admit that they’re not just talking about the “terminally ill.”  They even get kindly clueless Dr. Sanjay Gupta to give them the opportunity to proselytize to a national audience.

No two countries are alike, but nevertheless we should take what lessons we can from our brothers and sisters in the UK.  They’re fighting battles that may be just as imminent for us within a very short time.

Last night the BBC aired a “documentary” by fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.  Pratchett was diagnosed with a form of demential a couple of years ago.  Since then, he’s used his popularity, wealth and influence to do everything he can to push legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia forward.  As a rich disabled guy, this self-absorbed a-hole, Pratchett hasn’t, to my knowledge, said one word about the dismantling of the social safety net that other – less wealthy – disabled people are facing.  In this latest BBC show, Pratchett showed a person at Dignitas taking a lethal drink and dying.

Enough from me.

On the blog Disabled People Fight Back, Miss Dennis Queen (aka Clair Lewis) put up two posts today in regard two posts outlining a disability response:

Challenging Pratchett & Designer Deaths: Assisted Suicide is deadly discrimination

Fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett has already written his life’s final chapter. For it to work, we’d need to destroy medical & human rights legislation and principles protecting sick & disabled people and our lives. Not only is this selfish and arrogant, but should he achieve his goal, many lives would be put at risk.

Terry Pratchett wants all sick & disabled people who are suffering to be given access to deathly medications – not all people who wish to end their lives – just us sick ones.  This is a deadly form of discrimination.

Disability rights activists in the Disabled people’s movement such as D.A.N. and Not Dead Yet and the newer UK network of the same name have been fighting the flow of popular opinion on this for a very long time, but our voices are rarely included in the debate. At the very least there should be some balance in the debate.

In his position of privilege, can Terry even know or understand what difficulties most of us face, or why we face them? Is a newly disabled, well off, writer of fiction qualified to make such huge social decisions on our behalf? He is not suffering the neglect so many face, or the pressures to not be a burden. He is out of touch with the struggles of most people with serious impairments and illnesses. How can he know what is right for the rest of us?

Pratchett’s documentary tonight on BBC made a completely one-sided bid to show how wanted and ‘good’ death clinics are, despite it being common medical knowledge that most people in severe health situations want to be supported to live as long as we can.

 Read the rest of the post here.

ACTION NOTICE: Fight BBC bias towards assisted suicide! Just takes 10 minutes 

It’s time to complain to the BBC again and push for balance. Despite more than a year of us poking them, pointing out the one-sidedness of what they choose to air on voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, BBC are continuing to advance and weight debate about this life and death issue.  
This influences public opinion and is not a representation of the complex debates going on. People do have a right to choice and part of that is being given access to ALL the information.

Last night’s documentary from Terry Pratchett about assisted suicide contained no detailed balancing view.

Debates afterards on Newsnight were weighted against the sole disability rights activist there (Liz Carr) and one religious representative.

BBC online news last night gave brief overview on this matter:

Ms Carr said: “I and many other disabled older and terminally ill people, are quite fearful of what legalising assisted suicide would do and mean and those arguments aren’t being debated, teased out, the safeguards aren’t being looked at.
“Until we have a programme that does that, then I won’t be happy to move onto this wider debate.”

Read the rest of the post here, which includes a link to a BBC complaint form and a 5-step set of instructions to to ease the process.  

And if you think it’s unfair or paranoid to link the economic crisis to the rise in pro-euthanasia propaganda, I’d advise people to go back and read this post, which highlighted the following quote from Hemlock Society Founder and Final Exit Network advisor Derek Humphry, writing with author Mary Clement in 2000:

“Similar to other social issues, the right-to-die movement has not arisen separate and distinct from other concurrent developments of our time. In attempting to answer the question Why Now?, one must look at the realities of the increasing cost of health care in an aging society, because in the final analysis, economics, not the quest for broadened individual liberties or increased autonomy, will drive assisted suicide to the plateau of acceptable practice. As technology advances, as medical costs skyrocket out of control, as chronic diseases predominate, as the projected rate of the eighty-five-and-older population accelerates, as managed care seeks to cut costs and as Medicare is predicted to go bankrupt by 2007, the impetus of cost containment provide impetus, whether openly acknowledged or not, for the practicalities of an assisted death.” (Emphasis added.)


–Stephen Drake

In Memorium: The Things NDYers Have Said About Kevorkian Over the Years

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First, specific airing of Largest Minority on WBAI mentioned earlier this week is now archived in mp3 format.  You can listen to the show if you missed it and still want to check it out.

Today, a public and private funeral and memorial was held for Jack Kevorkian.  I won’t link to the press coverage – it’s all predictably nauseating.

But I thought it would be appropriate to do a different kind of memorial right here.  In order to appropriately “honor” Kevorkian’s memory, I’ve searched the internet and some of our archives to provide a glimpse of what disability advocates and activists – inside and outside of NDY – have had to say about the man over the years.

This isn’t an exhaustive list.  Through several moves and computer changes, there are some significant press releases, flyers, articles and press coverage I can’t get my hands on right now.  I’ll try to develop some sort of plan to go about gathering and organizing our archives.  For now, please enjoy these.  –Stephen Drake

1993

Disabled Need Care – Not a Visitation by Dr. Kevorkian by Edward John Hudak

1996

Press Release: Disability Activists Declare War on Kevorkian
A High Defends Quality of Life by Mark O’Brien (archive.org)

1997

 Welcome to Kevorky’s Kosmos by editor of Ragged Edge.
Those ol’ Kevorkian blues by Mary Johnson


1998


The Tactics of Survival by CK Montgomery

1999

The Meaning of ‘Murderer’ by Cal Montgomery
Dr. Death on trial in Philadelphia by Jimmi Schrode
Self-execution for witches by Mary Krane Derr
Busy – But Not Dead Yet (profile) by Mary Johnson
Deadly Tactics – by Diane Coleman

2000

A battle waged in Boston: right to die vs. will to live by John B Kelly

ALERT – NDY Discussion of Kevorkian and Assisted Suicide on WBAI Tonight!

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Sorry for the late notice, but I’ll be on Largest Minority Radio Show on WBAI tonight.  The show starts at 9:00 pm ET.  I’ll be on around 9:25 or so.  Here’s the description of the show and how to listen in:

Our next show airs Wednesday, June 8th, at 9:00pm on WBAI.  Our guests will include Aaron Bishop from the National Council on Disability, discussing a Congressional forum they hosted recently regarding the budget proposals currently circulating in Washington.  We’ll also discuss the recent death of Dr. Jack Kevorkian with Stephen Drake, Research Analyst from Not Dead Yet.  Tune in, 9:00pm Eastern at 99.5FM in New York or streaming at wbai.org!

I’d recommend tuning in at 9:00 pm to listen to the first part on the budget proposals floating around DC.  These proposals are of life-and-death importance to disabled people of all ages!

Link to WBAI is here.

Click here tonight to listen live (multiple formats supported)

Like the idea of a disability-oriented show?  Like tonight’s show?

If you’re on Facebook, go the Largest Minority Radio Show page and “like” it.

That’s all for now.  Be talking to y’all later tonight!  –Stephen Drake