November 1, 2013 Response to Question 1: I am a 55-year-old white man who is a quadriplegic based on a spinal cord injury in 1984. The level of my injury was at the fourth cervical level, resulting in near total paralysis below my shoulders. My breathing ability survived the injury, and after diaphragmatic strengthening, I have breathed without assistance for the last 30 years. I drive a powered wheelchair with a sip/puff tube, live in the commun…
…patients who are often very sick, very old or very young — and access to drugs powerful enough to kill unobtrusively through an intravenous tube. And they work at institutions with an inherent aversion to litigation and publicity. This is just the tip of iceberg. I know that at least one of the experts in this article, forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland (not quoted in excerpt above), has published a book about serial killers in medical sett…
…e 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 oppone…
…. Christina lived at home and her mother did a lot of her care. For many 31-year-old, this would be unbearable. New Jersey now does have a PCA program, but I wonder did she got enough hours of care to meet her needs? When states and the federal government constantly underfund support programs, we disabled people get the message that we are not wanted. Finally, it sounds like Christina was not getting appropriate medical care. Unrelieved pain and a…
…ohn Kelly Second Thoughts 617-536-5140 Email Diane Coleman Not Dead Yet 708-420-0539 Email Boston, MA (PRWEB) November 07, 2012 Massachusetts disability rights activists from the group Second Thoughts breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday night as voters defeated Question 2, which would have legalized assisted suicide in the state. Members had gathered at Boston’s Littlest Bar to await the election results. According to the Boston Globe, with 51 perce…
