Many Disability Advocates Blocked From Testifying At NJ Assisted Suicide Hearing

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Seven disability advocates representing national and New Jersey state organizations planned to testify at a state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Thursday, February 7, beginning at 1:00 p.m., but only two were allowed to do so. Unlike NJ Committee hearings on the issue in previous years, the hearing was stopped at 2:30, cutting off many witnesses who had signed up to testify.

In an even more shocking political dirty trick, nj.com reports that last minute Committee reassignments substituted two legislators who would vote in favor of the bill for two Democrats who had previously voted against it.

[State Senate President Stephen] “Sweeney and Senate sponsor Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, do not sit on the health committee but participated instead of Sens. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, and Fred Madden, D-Gloucester, who voted against the bill when it was up for a committee vote in 2016.”

The two disability rights witnesses who were permitted to testify were Dawn Parkot who founded the Climb Organization and Lindsay Tuman on behalf of the DAWN Center for Independent Living. For Ms. Parkot’s testimony, go here, and for Ms. Tuman’s, go here.

Dawn Parkot’s brilliant op-ed also appeared in a leading New Jersey newspaper, very well worth reading: Here’s why a person with disabilities doesn’t want N.J. to have a law that allows people to kill themselves. [The paper’s editor gave it a misleading title, since the bill allows people to assist suicide; it’s not illegal to kill oneself – these bills immunize other people for assisting.]

Disability advocates who did not get to speak for even as little as two minutes, some of whom traveled there to represent national disability organizations, were:

  • Kate Blisard, New Jersey Not Dead Yet (testimony here)
  • Anita Cameron, Not Dead Yet
  • Kathryn Carroll, Center for Disability Rights
  • Erick Jones, ADAPT
  • Alex Thompson, United Spinal Assn.

More of the excluded testimony to be posted soon.

The Committee proceeded to vote 6-to-3 for the bill to proceed to the Senate floor. If the two legislators who previously voted against the bill had not been substituted out at the last minute and had voted as before, the vote would have been 5-to-4 against advancing the bill out of Committee.

From ASAN: Sign up to be a Day of Mourning Vigil Site Coordinator!

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[From our friends at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network:]

In the past five years, over 650 people with disabilities have been murdered by their parents, relatives, or caregivers.

On Friday, March 1st, the disability community will gather across the nation to remember these disabled victims of filicide – disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers.

In the year since our last vigil, our community has lost over 70 more people to filicide. These are just the cases that we are aware of – since we began monitoring this issue, we learn about more murders every week. We read the victims’ names, see their photographs, and gather what information we can about their lives. The criminal justice system has continued to give lighter sentences to family and caregivers who murder disabled people, and the media continues to portray these murders in a sympathetic light.

We hold the Day of Mourning vigils to draw attention to these injustices, to commemorate the lives of victims, and demand justice and equal protection under the law for all people with disabilities. This would not be possible without the vital work of our volunteer site coordinators.  Click here to learn about what site coordinators do, or to sign up to lead a vigil.

Since 2012, ASAN and other disability rights organizations have come together to send a clear message that disability is not a justification for violence. We’ll be at our local vigils on Friday, March 1st – and we hope to see you there.

If you’re interested in leading a vigil in your area, please sign up to be a Day of Mourning vigil site coordinator. To learn more about Day of Mourning, see our Anti-Filicide Toolkit.

Media Advisory: Doctor-Prescribed Suicide Laws Are Bad Public Policy

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NDY issued the Media Advisory below on the Monday morning, January 28, 2019.

Not Dead Yet, the Resistance

No coverage of the assisted suicide issue is fair and balanced without the perspective of New York disability organizations and individuals who oppose it. (Proponents of bills to legalize assisted suicide will be holding a press conference at the state capital in Albany on Monday at 10:30 a.m.)

We live with a profit driven healthcare system facing tremendous cost-cutting pressures. Assisted suicide is the cheapest “treatment.” These bills grant legal immunity to doctors and others who assist suicides of people who may have a terminal condition. They do not prevent mistakes, coercion or abuse and, therefore, endanger the lives of old, ill and disabled people.

To speak with New York disability organizations and individuals who oppose assisted suicide bills, including members in Albany, please contact:

Diane Coleman, JD
President/CEO
Not Dead Yet
708-420-0539
dcoleman@notdeadyet.org

Gregg Beratan
Manager of Government Affairs
Center for Disability Rights
518-320-7100 ext. 2230
gberatan@cdrnys.org

The New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide also issued a press release today.

Video of Shonda McLaughlin’s Personal Story of Disability Discrimination

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NDY board officer Shonda McLaughlin shared her personal story of discrimination during ADAPT’s celebration of the reintroduction of the Disability Integration Act on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday January 15th. John Kelly, NDY’s New England Regional Director, captured a video of her remarks, which he said “personalize the ‘better dead than disabled’ mindset, and embody the way forward through civil rights and solidarity.” He also captured Anita Cameron’s introduction and call to action in this 5 minute video. For background, see NDY’s press release.

Press Release: NDY Leaders To Speak At Disability Integration Act Reintroduction

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Not Dead Yet, the ResistanceNot Dead Yet Leaders To Speak At Disability Integration Act Reintroduction on M.L. King’s Jan. 15 Birthday

Contacts: Diane Coleman 708-420-0539
Anita Cameron 585-259-8746

Not Dead Yet’s Director of Minority Outreach Anita Cameron will MC the ADAPT celebration of the reintroduction of the Disability Integration Act (DIA) in Congress on M.L. King’s Birthday, Tuesday, January 15th. Cameron has been an ADAPT organizer and activist for decades and has the distinction of having been arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience for disability rights more times than any other disability activist in the nation.

NDY Board officer Shonda McLaughlin will speak on behalf of Not Dead Yet at this public event. Senator Schumer, Senator Bob Casey, Senator Cory Gardner and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner have confirmed that they will speak, along with representatives of leading disability rights and seniors organizations that are joining together to advance the DIA.

“This bill is vital to seniors and people with disabilities,” said Cameron. “DIA ensures that people can live in freedom in our communities rather than being forced into nursing facilities and other institutions. It is bipartisan legislation that has a real chance to pass in this Congress.”

The celebration event will be held on January 15, 2019, from 3 – 4pm ET at the Capitol Visitors Center Room SVC 202-3 in Washington, D.C., and will be simulcast on National ADAPT‘s social media.

The Disability Integration Act is civil rights legislation. The bill ends what disabled activists have long called “the institutional bias” by requiring that any public or private insurer offering long term supports and services must make them available in a community setting rather than only in institutions and nursing facilities.

In the last session, DIA was introduced by Senator Schumer in the Senate and Representative Sensenbrenner in the House. The legislation builds on the 25 years of work that ADAPT has done to end the institutional bias and provide seniors and people with disabilities home and community-based services as an alternative to institutionalization.

Much of the excitement over the reintroduction comes from the feeling that DIA’s time has come. “The midterm elections changed everything. With Dems taking over the house, there is a real opportunity to pass the bill on the House side this year” said Kelly Buckland, Executive Director of the National Council on Independent Living. “As someone who uses attendant services and has spent time in a nursing facility, I can’t begin to express how exciting it is that this is finally going to happen.”

It is not a coincidence that the celebrations and the reintroduction are taking place on January 15th, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. The Disability Rights movement has deep ties the Civil Rights leader and has long marked the day as Freedom Day.As Cameron has previously written, explaing the solidarity between ADAPT and NDY, DIA “would give people with disabilities and seniors the civil right to receive attendant services and other supports at home, instead of in institutions.”

Not Dead Yet opposes the legalization of assisted suicide and strongly supports DIA because it addresses many of the reported concerns of people who request assisted suicide by assisting people to live at home, for whatever time they have, rather than assisting them to die.