Delaware NDY’s Daniese McMullin-Powell: Testimony Against Assisted Suicide Bill

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Photo: Red-haired woman sitting in wheelchair with legs crossed, holding leash with service dog sitting next to her.

House Health and Human Development Committee  
June 7, 2017
Daniese McMullin-Powell, Delaware Not Dead Yet
OPPOSE HB 160, End of Life Options

Doctors will be prescribing barbiturates with instructions to ingest 100 pills on an empty stomach to cause your death by overdose, and then, falsify your death certificate.

Diagnoses of terminal illness is too often wrong, leading some to give up on treatment and lose good months or years of their lives.  A pro suicide group will become your best friend to help you Doctor shop for a second opinion or even a first one if you want. Less than 5% will receive counseling.

A woman I helped get out of a facility came to live with me. She had less than 6 months to live, so had hospice services. She moved to her own apartment 7 months later. She still lives in Wilmington 15 years later. Cheap physician assisted suicide wasn’t available.

My Mom and Dad were both on hospice.  My Father exceeded his expiration date by a few months. He had good meds to control pain. When he passed, my Mom moved in with me.  She remained on hospice for another year or so. She even went on vacation twice to Florida. She passed away in my home 8 days after baking cookies and having a wonderful Xmas with all the great grand kids. If this poison was available in 2011 she may not have had those last good times. She always thought she was a burden… she was not.

Pain seems to be overrated as a reason to die sooner than later. In a 2015 report from Oregon, the top reasons for PAS are loss of ability to do things you enjoy, loss of autonomy and dignity, loss of control of body functions and dependence on others and… feeling to be a burden, all disability issues like some of us face every day. Down the line, pain or fear of pain is listed as a reason.

Society underrates quality of life for people with disabilities. Will we have suicide prevention or suicide assistance?

Calling this a choice or a right is false. It is the state and doctors that will determine who is eligible to die.  Besides we have always had choice, suicide is not illegal in the United States and there are many methods.

Insurance companies, including Medicaid in Oregon, have indeed denied expensive treatments for some, yet offer to cover cheaper assisted suicide.

There is a potential for abuse or coercion. Not all relatives, friends and caregivers have loving concern, and who would know?  All the so called safe guards are hollow and not enforceable.

There are no resources or authority to investigate assisted suicide cases in Oregon.  Hence, “there are no problems in Oregon.”

Vote NO to HB 160, so we can sleep at night and have a peaceful summer

Note: The Delaware house will vote as early as this week on HB 160. Delaware residents can find their legislators here.

Anita Cameron: 5 Mistaken Reasons Why People Want Doctor Prescribed Suicide

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I sometimes hear these thoughts and feelings expressed, so I want to share my responses.

1.  I want the freedom, choice and the right to end my life when I want to.

That freedom and choice already exists. When the pain of an illness gets to be too much, you can decide using a number of methods to end your life. Suicide is not illegal in the United States.

What you want is the freedom to doctor shop until you find a doctor who will give you suicide pills, even if it means that the choice to live will be taken away from some elders and people with disabilities who do not want to die.

It’s especially incomprehensible to argue for a right to assisted suicide as an accepted medical treatment option when we don’t yet have a right to health care, and the threat to such health care access as we do have is growing. For Blacks and People of Color, the racial disparities in health care are too great for us to be fooled into believing that we should have the “option” of assisted suicide as a medical procedure. As the cheapest procedure, it’s not a benefit but a threat.

2. The doctor told me that I have six months or less to live.

Doctors make mistakes about terminal diagnoses. It happens far more often than you think. Doctors should be helping people to live, not helping them to die. It is normal to become depressed after being told this. Doctors should be getting their patients into therapy at this point.

3. I want to just go to sleep and die with dignity.

People can already choose to die in their sleep by using hospice services. That’s what hospice medications, up to and including palliative sedation, do.

In contrast, there is no guarantee that the suicide pills the doctor will prescribe will simply put you to sleep in a few minutes. Sometimes it takes hours, even days, to die. Sometimes, because of the type of medicine or chemical used, you may experience pain, the very thing you were trying to avoid.

4. I want to end my life under the care and guidance of a doctor.

Contrary to popular belief, the only thing that the doctor does is prescribe the medication. The doctor is usually not with you when you take the medication, when you (or your spouse, parent or caregiver) open each of the 100 capsules and pour them into water or food and take them. With no independent witness required to be there, you might have a family member or caregiver who will give you the pills, but you’d better hope that they are not more anxious to have it be over than you are.

5. I will lose the ability to do the things that I used to be able to do.

This is a disability concern, not an end of life issue. It shouldn’t be a reason to want to die, but for the all too common societal view that its better to be dead than disabled. That very view is why doctor assisted suicide is so dangerous for people with disabilities. Our lives and quality of life are devalued by many doctors. Instead of prescribing home based care, attendant services, and possibly some counseling, some doctors see death as the only viable option for some of us.

NY Court of Appeals Rally – Two Photos and Coverage

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NDY activists from across the state rallied Tuesday, May 30th on a cold and rainy afternoon outside the New York Court of Appeals. The friend-of-the-court brief filed by NDY and joined by ten other national and state Disability Rights Amici was mentioned twice during oral argument in the case, favorably, by counsel for the Attorney General and by one of the Justices. The recorded webcast of the argument is scheduled to be posted online on the Court’s website next week. Two photos are below, followed by some links to news coverage. Two additional photos appeared in the Albany Times Union story, though the disability advocates were not mentioned in the text.

Eight disability advocates lined up on sidewalk at Court building, in rain gear, all behind two hot pink parade banners with the words “Not Dead Yet, We want to live!”
Eight disability advocates lined up in front of Court building, two in wheelchairs, all in rain gear, with a hot pink NDY banner and signs saying “Help to Live, Not to Die”, “Lethal Drugs Are Not Healthcare,” and “Stop Assisted Suicide.”

N.Y.’s highest court hears case on ‘aid in dying’ (Times Union, 5/30/17) [2 photos]

Attorney’s argue for terminally ill patients’ right to die (WNYT, 5/30/17) [Anita Cameron, NDY Director of Minority Outreach, interviewed & protest footage]

Advocates push for right to die legislation (Albany News 10 ABC, 5/30/17) [Adam Prizio, NDY attorney, interviewed & protest footage]

New York’s high court hears physician-assisted suicide case (Rochester News 10 NBC, 5/30/17)

Defense arguments in Myers v. Schneiderman – public radio interview of disability attorney Adam Prizio by Alyssa Plock (Capitol Pressroom, 5/30/17) [Transcript in process]

NY’s highest court to weigh physician-assisted suicide lawsuit (Newsday, 5/28/17)

New York Appeals Court To Hear Case on Doctor Aid in Dying (Wall Street Journal, 5/22/17) [WSJ subscribers version, NY Alliance Against Assisted Suicide version, Diane Coleman, NDY President/CEO, interviewed]

A decision is expected sometime this summer.

Press Release: Disability Activists Rally Against Assisted Suicide At NY Court of Appeals

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For Immediate Release:
May 30, 2017

Not Dead Yet, the Resistance

Contacts:
Diane Coleman 708-420-0539 dcoleman@notdeadyet.org
Adam Prizio 518-320-7100 (office) 603-518-4910 (cell) aprizio@cdrnys.org 

Disability rights activists from across the state will rally as the New York Court of Appeals hears oral arguments Tuesday afternoon, May 30th in the Myers v. Schneiderman assisted suicide case.

Not Dead Yet led the filing of a Disability Rights friend-of-the-court brief in the Court of Appeals in support of the New York State Attorney General, and earlier rulings in the case by the Supreme Court and Appellate Division, both of which dismissed a case seeking to legalize physician assisted suicide.

Joining in the Not Dead Yet brief were ten other national and New York state disability rights organizations: ADAPT, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Center for Disability Rights, the Disability Rights Center, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), the National Council on Independent Living, the New York Association on Independent Living, Regional Center for Independent Living and United Spinal Association, collectively referred to as the “Disability Rights Amici.”

New York attorney Adam Prizio handled the filing on behalf of the disability organizations. “Our basic position is that when some people get suicide prevention while other people get suicide assistance, and the difference is the person’s age, disability or health status, that’s unlawful discrimination,” said Prizio. “It’s a problem that certain people are being told that others not only agree with their suicide, which is bad enough, but will even help them carry it out. It’s a deadly form of discrimination and, as our brief says, it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst with DREDF, summarizes concerns about a government authorized, medically administered public policy of assisted suicide as follows: “If assisted suicide is legalized, some people’s lives will be ended without their consent, through mistakes and abuse. No safeguards have ever been enacted or proposed that can prevent this outcome, which can never be undone.”

Disability advocates are often criticized by assisted suicide proponents who claim that assisted suicide is only for the terminally ill, not people with disabilities. Activists will distribute information which refutes that claim based on data from Oregon, where it is legal.

The brief also expresses concerns about the context of health care cost-cutting in which assisted suicide is being advocated. “Elders and people with disabilities too often face economic or other pressures to get out of the way,” said Diane Coleman, president/CEO of Not Dead Yet. “If assisted suicide becomes an accepted practice, coverage may be denied for more expensive healthcare, as we’ve already seen in Oregon and California. What is being promoted as a ‘right to die’ could very quickly become an expectation, even a duty to die in this climate.”

 

New York’s Assisted Suicide Case To Be Heard on May 30th

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A case pushing New York courts to find a state constitutional right to assisted suicide will be heard in oral argument in the NY Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, next Tuesday, May 30th.

Not Dead Yet filed friend-of-the-court briefs, joined by ten other national and New York state disability rights organizations, at both the Appellate Division and Court of Appeals.

Attorney for the Court of Appeals brief, Adam Prizio, said, “Our basic position is that when some people get suicide prevention while other people get suicide assistance, and the difference is the person’s age, disability or health status, that’s unlawful discrimination. It’s a problem that certain people are being told that others not only agree with their suicide, which is bad enough, but will even help them carry it out. It’s a deadly form of discrimination and, as our brief says, it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The Disability Rights brief was cited by the NY Attorney General’s brief when making the point that “terminal” prognoses are often wrong, a common experience among people with disabilities who have been given such faulty predictions.

Physicians are often unable to accurately ascertain how much time a patient has remaining to live, and not infrequently misdiagnose an illness as terminal. See Physicians Amici Br. at 17-18; Amicus Br. of Not Dead Yet, et al. (“NDY Amici Br.”) at 9, 17; . . .

The Oregon assisted suicide data confirms this “terminal uncertainty” and, moreover, shows that nearly everyone who receives lethal prescriptions in Oregon is disabled. Here is what we know from the Oregon state data:

  • People with the following conditions have been given lethal prescriptions – ALS, heart disease, COPD, benign and uncertain neoplasms, other respiratory diseases, diseases of the nervous system (including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease), musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases, viral hepatitis, diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular disease, and alcoholic liver disease.
  • Oregon receives reports on how many people outlive their “terminal prognosis” but have been given lethal prescriptions every year, but the state’s public report does not tell how many, and it destroys the underlying data.
  • The top 5 reasons people are reported to request assisted suicide are disability concerns that have not been addressed but could be: “loss of autonomy” (91 %), “less able to engage in activities” (90%), “loss of dignity” (77 %), “losing control of bodily functions” (47%), and “burden on others” (42 %). So virtually all are disabled!

I was recently interviewed by Zolan Kanno-Youngs for the Wall Street Journal about the case, and quoted as follows:

Some disability organizations argue allowing doctors to assist in one’s death would put the vulnerable at risk. Health officials should prioritize providing the best treatment to the disabled and ill, said Diane Coleman, president and chief executive of Not Dead Yet, a disability-rights group.

“The proper role of health-care providers and other professionals is to be telling people that their lives are worth living whatever they may experience,” said Ms. Coleman, who is 63 years old and has a neuromuscular disability. . . .

Ms. Coleman said regardless of the patient’s condition, helping someone end their life would be aiding a suicide. . . . “Why is our society talking about taking this group—old, ill and disabled people—and carving them out of that policy of suicide prevention,” said Ms. Coleman “To us it seems like here we are being devalued again.” (NEW YORK APPEALS COURT TO HEAR CASE ON DOCTOR AID IN DYING, Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2017.)