Press Release: Disability Advocates Applaud New Mexico Supreme Court Ruling In Assisted Suicide Case

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Not Dead Yet, the ResistanceIn a unanimous opinion issued yesterday afternoon, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in the Morris v. Brandenburg case that there is no state constitutional right to assisted suicide.

Not Dead Yet was assisted by disability rights attorney Steve Gold and New Mexico counsel Lara Katz in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. Joining Not Dead Yet in the brief were ADAPT, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, the National Council on Independent Living and United Spinal Association, collectively referred to as the “Disability Amici.”

“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 a problem,” said Not Dead Yet’s president and CEO, Diane Coleman. “It’s a problem of devaluation of people who 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 Supreme Court outlined the reasoning in its 58-page opinion as follows:

“[T]he State has legitimate interests in (1) protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession; (2) protecting vulnerable groups—including the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons—from the risk of subtle coercion and undue influence in end-of-life 
situations, including pressures associated with the substantial financial burden of end-of-life health care costs; and (3) protecting against voluntary or involuntary euthanasia because if physician aid in dying is a constitution alright, it must be made 
available to everyone, even when a duly appointed surrogate makes the decision, and 
even when the patient is unable to self-administer the life-ending medication.”

The latter concern is rarely discussed, but is an important consideration in dealing with constitutional rights. So far, consistent with the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Washington v.Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill, no state has found a constitutional right to assisted suicide, and New Mexico now joins several other states, including Florida, Montana, Connecticut, California and New York in declining to do so.

Each of the national disability organizations that joined in Not Dead Yet’s friend-of-the-court brief brought a specific perspective to the high court’s attention. For example, the primary mission of ADAPT is to ensure that seniors and people with disabilities are not forced into nursing facilities, but have the choice to receive consumer directed long term care services in their own home. “If the only alternative to death that those in power offer people who require assistance is poverty and segregation in nursing facilities, then it makes no sense to talk about assisted suicide as a ‘choice’”, said Bruce Darling, an ADAPT organizer based in Rochester, New York.

Many people with disabilities acquire them as a result of accidents or trauma, and their prognosis is often uncertain in the early stages. “If assisted suicide had been legal in the past, even if it were supposedly only for those with ‘terminal’ conditions, many of us would not be here today,” said Kelly Buckland, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living. “I might not be here today, and I’m grateful that assisted suicide was not legal back then, and I’m committed to keeping it that way.”

The brief also expressed concerns about the context of health care cost-cutting in which assisted suicide is being advocated. “In an aging society where elder and disability abuse is a growing problem, elders too often face economic or other pressures to get out of the way, whether those pressures come from the health care system or, sadly, from family,” Coleman said.

A free subscription to the Not Dead Yet blog is available online.

New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Against Constitutional Right To Assisted Suicide

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In a unanimous opinion issued June 30, 2016, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in the Morris v. Brandenburg case that there is no state constitutional right to assisted suicide.

Not Dead Yet was assisted by disability rights attorney Steve Gold and New Mexico counsel Lara Katz in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. Joining Not Dead Yet in the brief were ADAPT, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, the National Council on Independent Living and United Spinal Association, collectively referred to as the “Disability Amici.”

According to the Albuquerque Journal in NM Supreme Court rules on aid in dying, workers comp for ag:

Perhaps emulating colleagues on the U.S. Supreme Court who issue a flurry of opinions in June, New Mexico’s highest court on Thursday filed long, detailed opinions on two of the most contentious issues before it – aid in dying and workers compensation for farm and ranch workers.

The New Mexico Supreme Court nixed a district court decision finding a right to have a physician prescribe drugs that a competent, terminally ill patient may self-administer to choose a peaceful means of death.

. . . In the aid in dying case, argued last fall, the court had the example of three other states with either statutes or court opinions allowing the practice, and California joined the list during the pendency of the case.

The Supreme Court outlined the reasoning in its 58-page opinion as follows:

Although the State does not have a 
legitimate interest in preserving a painful and debilitating life that will imminently 
come to an end, the State does have a legitimate interest in providing positive 
protections to ensure that a terminally ill patient’s end-of-life decision is informed, 
independent, and procedurally safe. More specifically, the State has legitimate interests in (1) protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession; (2) protecting vulnerable groups—including the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons—from the risk of subtle coercion and undue influence in end-of-life 
situations, including pressures associated with the substantial financial burden of end-of-life health care costs; and (3) protecting against voluntary or involuntary euthanasia because if physician aid in dying is a constitution alright, it must be made 
available to everyone, even when a duly appointed surrogate makes the decision, and 
even when the patient is unable to self-administer the life-ending medication.

The latter concern is rarely discussed, but is an important consideration in dealing with constitutional rights. So far, no state has found a constitutional right to assisted suicide, and New Mexico now joins Florida, Alaska, Montana, Connecticut, California and New York in declining to do so.

VIDEO: The Disability Community Responds to Me Before You movie

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There’s a brand new video created by Carrie Ann Lucas celebrating protests of the movie “Me Before You” by the disability community on three continents. Carrie is on the Board of Directors of NDY and one of the leaders of Colorado NDY. Here’s how she describes the video:

The disability community responded to the disability snuff movie, Me Before You, with protests in many countries on three continents. The movie gives audiences the message that if you’re a disabled person, you’re better off dead #LiveBoldly? We already do! #MeBeforeEuthanasia

The musical backdrop for the video is by activist/songwriter/musician/singer Johnny Crescendo, singing “Not Dead Yet,” a song he wrote years ago about our community’s opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia.  The video is captioned – and here’s info on how to access audio description:

Video described version available at YouDescribe.org at https://youdescribe.org/player.php?v=..

Caution: This video includes rapidly moving images which may induce seizures or other neurological responses in sensitive individuals.

California Assisted Suicide Law Is Denounced By Leading Disability Rights Policy Center

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[Editor’s Note: Apologies for this belated posting of an press release from our friends at DREDF regarding an important new watchdog website launched by our allies at the Patients Rights Action Fund.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2016
CONTACTS:
Marilyn Golden, Senior Policy Analyst, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
(510) 549-9339
mgolden@dredf.org

CALIFORNIA ASSISTED SUICIDE LAW IS DENOUNCED BY LEADING DISABILITY RIGHTS POLICY CENTER

Announces national web resource for reporting abuses and other problems

Berkeley, CA – June 7, 2016 – The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, a leading national disability rights law and policy center based in Berkeley, California, denounces the enactment of California’s End of Life Option Act, which goes into effect on June 9.

DREDF is pleased to announce, along with our coalition partners in Californians Against Assisted Suicide, that this week, the national organization Patients Rights Action Fund will launch a new web page where concerned individuals, family members, and friends can bring to light abuses, problems, and complications associated with assisted suicide laws. The new online resource is located at http://patientsrightsaction.org/stories.

California’s assisted suicide law, which is modeled on Oregon’s law, is marked by extraordinarily weak safeguards and oversight, posing great danger to many Californians with disabilities. as well as people with chronic and terminal illnesses, lower-income Californians, and to the general public.

DREDF and all our coalition partners, including the many California disability organizations that opposed this law, remain gravely concerned about it. The End of Life Option Act:

  • creates a deadly mix with our broken, profit-driven healthcare system,
  • is conducive to elder abuse,
  • has very weak safeguards, allowing families to shop for other doctors to provide lethal drugs if the first physician says no, and endangering patients who receive terminal diagnoses that are often mistaken,
  • puts people with depression at risk, and does not require patients requesting lethal drugs to receive a mental
  • health evaluation,
  • provides for no investigation of abuse, and
  • requires no neutral witness to be present when the lethal drugs are taken.

Because the dangers are so significant, many national disability organizations, plus the American Medical Association (AMA), also oppose the legalization of assisted suicide.

DREDF is part of the Californians Against Assisted Suicide coalition, which has worked against assisted suicide laws since 2005. The new California law allowing doctor-prescribed suicide received significant Democrat and Republican opposition in the California Legislature, particularly in the State Assembly. It stalled in the Democrat-controlled Assembly Health Committee because of a significant failure to receive adequate support. The bill was later passed only through the use of an unusual legislative maneuver that placed the bill into a Special Legislative Session on healthcare funding that bypassed many established legislative protections.

Recent attempts to pass similar assisted suicide laws in at least fourteen other states, including Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and New Hampshire, have failed.

About Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
Founded in 1979, by people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) is a national law and policy center, based in Berkeley, CA, dedicated to protecting and advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities.

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Anita Cameron: Blacks and the Anti Assisted Suicide Movement

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[Editor’s Note: Anita Cameron has served on the national NDY Board since late 2013. She is a longtime community organizer with ADAPT and I have had the honor of knowing and working with her since 1987 when I joined ADAPT. She is one of the leaders of Not Dead Yet Colorado. Her article, Blacks and the Anti Assisted Suicide Movement, is very important and I’m grateful for her permission to reprint it below.]

As a disability rights activist, a critical part of disability rights advocacy and activism is, for me, the fight against assisted suicide and euthanasia.

I have been involved in this aspect of the movement for quite some time, upwards of 15 years. I am a member of, and sit on the board of Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability rights organization opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination.

I’ve always noticed, but it has never really hit me until now, that very few Blacks are a part of the movement.

While we do get support from other Blacks, and there may be a token Black or two at local Not Dead Yet events and protests, as far as I know, I’m the only Black person in the country who is consistently active in this movement. I could be wrong. I hope I am.

Why is this? Why don’t more Black folks get involved with the anti assisted suicide movement?

It is well-known that the face of the anti assisted suicide movement, indeed, the disability rights movement, is White. It is well-known that often, contributions of Blacks to the disability rights movement are erased or unacknowledged. Even if Blacks are seen as leaders, the ones in front of the cameras or receiving the awards and accolades are usually White.

A 2013 Pew study showed that 65% of Black folks are against assisted suicide. Still, there is scant involvement of Black folks in campaigns to stop legislation that would legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.

I have some ideas why there’s almost no Black participation in this movement.

1. This isn’t a part of our culture.

Frankly, assisted suicide isn’t something that is discussed in the Black community. I’d never heard of it, even though my birth mother lived with chronic illness and lived to see the end results of her condition. Not once did she complain. Not once did she ask to die. None of the folks in my church or community wanted to die because they were sick or disabled. I’m not saying that suicide doesn’t exist in the Black community, but in my experience, it was due to depression related to situational issues, such as the loss of a job, a spouse or loved one or something else entirely. When we get sick or become disabled, we or our families often turn to prayer or the church.

2. Assisted suicide is considered a White thing.

Many Black folks who I talk to about the anti assisted suicide movement say “that’s a White thing, we don’t do that stuff”. They ask me why have I devoted myself to a predominantly White issue.

3. Blacks with disabilities have enough specific issues to work on without working on an almost exclusively White issue that doesn’t affect us.

Some Black activists have told me that I’m wasting time on a movement that has nothing to do with us and that I should be involved in working on issues that directly affect Black folks.

The reasons above are valid but I’ve never let my race be a reason why I don’t do certain forms of activism. I have always been a pioneer, being the first or only Black in my class or my town to do something.

When I first got involved with the social justice and change movement at age 16, I was part of the anti nuclear movement. Yes, I was the only Black person in my group, and that would be true of every group I was a part of until I discovered ADAPT.

I joined the anti assisted suicide and anti euthanasia movement because I felt that it was important to fight against the devaluation of the lives of people with disabilities. Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia of people with disabilities is a deadly form of discrimination resulting from the fact that doctors and others do not see the lives of people with disabilities as valuable. This mirrors society’s beliefs that our lives are not worth living and that it is better to be dead than disabled.

The legalization of assisted suicide sets up a two-tiered system where if a non-disabled person is suicidal, they will receive treatment sometimes against their will, while people with disabilities experiencing the same get assisted suicide as an “option” or “choice”. Society frames the suicide of a non-disabled person as, at worst, a very selfish act or at best, the act of a sick person, while suicide by someone with a disability is considered to be brave and considerate, rather than a tragedy.

Assisted suicide legalization supporters see it as a choice to end their lives when they want to, but there are already options available without legalization.

Sometimes it feels odd as a Black person to be involved with the anti assisted suicide movement. It feels lonely to be the only Black face in my local group. I know that many people feel that I’m only a token.

It has only been very recently that there has been any form of conversation about the involvement of Blacks in the anti assisted suicide/anti euthanasia movement. I can only guess at the reasons for this. There needs to be far more conversations with, and outreach to the black community.

My presence as part of the movement is important and valuable. As we fight potential ballot initiatives in our state that would legalize euthanasia by lethal injection, Blacks will get caught up because due to medical racism, the lives of Blacks are already seen as less worthy than Whites. That’s even more so with Blacks with disabilities. Our families are pressured to withdraw life support for loved ones or we fall under state’s futility laws.

If euthanasia and assisted suicide laws that aren’t restricted to terminally ill folks goes into law here in Colorado, Black folks will surely join the movement as more and more of us are coerced into dying by the medical establishment.

Even if we win the fight in Colorado and defeat those ballot initiatives, groups like Compassion and Choices, formerly, The Hemlock Society, and other groups won’t stop until there is assisted suicide, at the very least, in Colorado.

As more states try to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, we Blacks, especially those of us with disabilities, will have to stop seeing this as merely a privileged White people’s issue and see that this touches us too. We can’t afford for the only voice in this to be White. We bring a unique and valuable perspective to the movement that cannot be understated.

I call on both the Disability and the Black community around the nation to come together and work on how we amplify Black voices and Black participation in the anti assisted suicide movement. We must be in solidarity with each other. Too many lives are at stake.