During the Brittany Maynard publicity explosion, bioethicist Arthur Caplan wrote that young people, identifying with Maynard, would come out in droves to push the legalization of assisted suicide. There is, however, a cohort of young people reacting to the Maynard videos in exactly the opposite way, by expressing their strong opposition. Meghan Schrader, a thirty-two year … [Read more...] about Brittany Maynard Didn’t Speak for “the Millenials”
Disability Rights Groups' Opposition
Looking Beyond Shallow “Compassion” Reveals the Real Cruelty of Legal Assisted Suicide
John Kelly, a disability rights activist with Second Thoughts Massachusetts, has an article in the Newark (New Jersey) Star Ledger that does a masterful job of cutting through the sentimentality and the shallow idea of compassion behind the selling of assisted suicide laws. Sadly, some individuals have bought the idea that living until their natural deaths will hold nothing … [Read more...] about Looking Beyond Shallow “Compassion” Reveals the Real Cruelty of Legal Assisted Suicide
Disability Rights Groups Protest Attempts to Silence Dr. Ira Byock, Assisted Suicide Opponent
Dr. Ira Byock, professor at Dartmouth University's Geisel School of Medicine, former head of Dartmouth Hospital's palliative care department, and currently chief medical officer of the Providence Institute for Human Caring of Providence Health and Services, has been debating Compassion and Choices' Barbara Coombs Lee on various radio and tv shows during the period of intense … [Read more...] about Disability Rights Groups Protest Attempts to Silence Dr. Ira Byock, Assisted Suicide Opponent
Disability Rights Activist: Where Assisted Suicide is Legal, People Will Die against Their Will Through Mistakes or Abuse
This article, by Marilyn Golden, Senior Policy Analyst of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, appeared on CNN October 14, 2014. Golden writes: "At less than $300, assisted suicide is, to put it bluntly, the cheapest treatment for a terminal illness. This means that in places where assisted suicide is legal, coercion is not even necessary. If life-sustaining … [Read more...] about Disability Rights Activist: Where Assisted Suicide is Legal, People Will Die against Their Will Through Mistakes or Abuse
Decisions at the End of Life: Age will have little to do with what I want, and nothing to do with what I deserve.
Written by a Compassion and Choices member whose mother committed suicide, this article is right on in pointing out the hypocrisy (practiced every day by Compassion and Choices) of trumpeting autonomy while telling the old and people with disabilities that their lives are not worth living and their medical care not worth paying for. It's well worth reading, even though we at … [Read more...] about Decisions at the End of Life: Age will have little to do with what I want, and nothing to do with what I deserve.