A Memorial Service for Marca Bristo is being held today, October 17, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time at the Kellogg Conference Center at Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue NE in Washington, D.C. The Memorial will reportedly be live-streamed via the website of Access Living, her center, one of the oldest and largest centers for independent living in the country.
Throughout Not Dead Yet’s more than two decades of work, Marca demonstrated knowledge and support on the issues at the heart of our mission.
In April 1996, I was invited to present testimony on assisted suicide to the Constitution Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, testimony I co-authored with Carol Gill. Marca invited me to a disability policy summit held in Dallas the weekend before the scheduled testimony, where I was able to personally ask national disability rights leaders to sign on to the testimony, gaining support from Justin Dart, Judy Heumann and many more. There in Dallas, Not Dead Yet began.
The following year, Marca, who chaired the presidentially appointed National Council on Disability (NCD) during the Clinton Administration, arranged a debate before the Council members between myself and Derek Humphry, co-founder of the Hemlock Society, resulting in a formal NCD position opposing legalization of assisted suicide. NCD reaffirmed this position in 2005, and again this month when it released it’s new report, The Danger of Assisted Suicide Laws.
In April 1999, Marca spoke at a protest held at Princeton University opposing the hiring of bioethicist Peter Singer. “Singer’s core vision, that the life of a person with a disability is worth less than the life of a person without a disability, and therefore it is OK to kill infants with disabilities if that is what the parent wants to do, amounts to a defense of genocide.”
Over the years, the disability rights advocates at Access Living participated in NDY direct actions as well, and were a major part of our 2014 protest in Chicago against the World Federation of Right To Die Societies. Marca’s advocacy staff generously handled advance logistics for the action, and Marca spoke movingly at our rally.
Insightful, strategic, influential, mission driven, irreplaceable. Her dedication touched and bettered the lives of countless people with disabilities across decades, across many struggles. With Marca, the phrase “Rest In Power” takes on new meaning.
Beautifully written and so informative about NDY and Marca’s support. She was razor sharp at recognizing, supporting and speaking to the right issues at the right time and in a powerful way.