Vote No! on S. 136: New York Should Not Be Considering Assisted Suicide When So Many People Struggle to Live.

By Lisa Blumberg (pictured right)  and Not Dead Yet.

It is disturbing that at a time when the healthcare system is so broken and so many people struggle to get the care and practical support, they need that New York would want to try repeatedly pass legislation which would legalize doctor assisted suicide. The state has shown good judgment in rejecting the idea before and should reject it now.

The pandemic has made evident the deadly health care disparities that people of color, older people and persons with disabilities have always been subjected to. Any law which enables doctors to write lethal prescriptions at the request of people deemed to have six months or less to live, as this bill would, increases risk for devalued patients.

Despite common misconceptions, uncontrollable pain is not a primary reason that people turn to assisted suicide. Data indicates that people often request lethal prescriptions due to perceived lessening of autonomy, or feelings of being burden. As Cliff Perez, a disability rights activist, states, “these reasons are… existential or disability related and ought to be addressed with quality, multidisciplinary care, not death.” It is not so much how individuals view living with limitations caused by illness or disability, but society’s stigma and failure to provide practical supports to address such limitations.

New York Times: Diane Coleman has Died

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/diane-coleman-dead.html?smid=url-share

By Clay Risen, published 11/20/2024, updated 11/22/24  

Diane Coleman, a fierce advocate for disability rights who took on Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the right-to-die movement and the U.S. health care system, which she charged was responsible for devaluing the lives of Americans like her with physical and mental impairments, died on Nov. 1 at her home in Rochester, N.Y. She was 71. [Diane pictured right with sign stating "freedom rider"]

Her sister Catherine Morrison said the cause was sepsis.

Ms. Coleman was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a disorder that affected her motor neurons. She was using a wheelchair by 11, and doctors expected her to die before adulthood.

Instead, she blossomed, graduating as valedictorian from her high school and receiving a joint J.D.-M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1981.

It was only after several years of working as a consumer protection lawyer that she shifted her energies to disability rights, joining a flourishing movement that was pushing for anti-discrimination laws at every level of government, including improvements on transit and in buildings.

Ms. Coleman was a member of Adapt, considered one of the most militant disability rights groups. She participated in scores of protests, blocking the entrances to buildings where conferences were held or government offices were housed. She was arrested more than 25 times.

Ian McIntosh Appointed Interim Executive Director Of Not Dead Yet

Rochester, NY, January 13, 2025 – A Brief Note on behalf of The Board of Not Dead Yet:  

With the sudden passing of Not Dead Yet’s irreplaceable Founder, President and CEO, Diane Coleman , the Board of Not Dead Yet (NDY) was tasked with ensuring that her legacy continues into the next phase of this important mission, decades in the undertaking. We worked over a period of months, to select and appoint Ian McIntosh [pictured here] as Interim Executive Director. In this unprecedented and challenging time, Ian will provide leadership and direction while stewarding Not Dead Yet’s constant critical mission to oppose the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of disability discrimination.

Ian joins Not Dead Yet having previously served as the Director of Disability Outreach for the Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF), a leading, national, secular, non-partisan leader defending the rights of patients, people with disabilities, our elders, and the poor from the threat of legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Diane Coleman, Fierce Foe of the Right-to-Die Movement, Dies at 71

Photos in linked article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/diane-coleman-dead.html

Her fight for disability rights included founding a group called Not Dead Yet, which protested the work of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others.

By Clay Risen

Published Nov. 20, 2024, updated Nov. 21, 2024

Diane Coleman, a fierce advocate for disability rights who took on Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the right-to-die movement and the U.S. health care system, which she charged was responsible for devaluing the lives of Americans like her with physical and mental impairments, died on Nov. 1 at her home in

Rochester, N.Y. She was 71.

Not Dead Yet Comment on Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association’s Statement on “MAiD”

Not Dead Yet is a national disability rights organization focused on combatting disability based healthcare discrimination, particularly in the context of advanced or terminal illness. We are extremely disappointed that HPNA [Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association] would consider adopting a “stance of engaged neutrality” regarding whether assisted suicide should be permitted or prohibited. We urge HPNA to reverse course.

Moreover, although the proposed position statement [download available here] claims neutrality, its content reads like a defense and sometimes an outright promotion of a public policy of assisted suicide. Although only 11 jurisdictions have legalized the practice, HPNA’s statement says, “All hospice and palliative nurses should develop competence and mastery regarding MAiD in the domains of education, clinical practice, research, advocacy, and leadership.” HPNA appears not to have considered the views of either palliative care experts or disability rights activists who oppose the practice. The statement includes only limited references and minimal tolerance toward nurses who object to the practice.

HPNA tries to explain why assisted suicide should be referred to as “medical aid in dying” or MAiD for short. These are marketing terms. As Dr. Ira Byock, a palliative care specialist has written, “‘aid in dying’ makes it sound like giving someone a lethal drug is an extension of hospice and palliative care. It is not.”

New York Bar Association and Medical Society Ignore Dangers of Legalized Assisted Suicide

By Lisa Blumberg (pictured here).

The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) adopted a resolution in 2023 that supports the provisions of the assisted suicide bill before the legislature. This position is based on a report by its Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying. The report is extensive but seems more of defense of assisted suicide rather than a balanced inquiry into the myriad issues raised by its legalization.

During the summer last year, Not Dead Yet had learned of the NYSBA Task Force and requested an opportunity to speak to which the chair replied, “I'll be in touch a little later to settle on date for you to visit.” Sometime later, NDY inadvertently learned that David Leven, a leader in End of Life Choices New York, made a presentation to the Task Force. Rather than scheduling a comparable opportunity for opponents, the Task Force scheduled an open forum in November with a limited number of slots and did not notify the NY Alliance Against Assisted Suicide, a coalition of doctors, disability advocates and other opponents of assisted suicide laws. By the time word reached the Alliance, only three speaking slots remained available, the rest (over 20) taken by proponents. Later in December, another panel of prominent assisted suicide advocates presented to the Task Force but, once again, no expert panel from the opposition.

"My Mum Didn't Die"

Good morning. I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide laws are dangerous because though these laws are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. In 2009, while living in Washington state, my mother was determined to be at the end stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I was told her death was imminent, that if I wanted to see her alive, I should get there in two days. She rallied, but was still quite ill, so she was placed in hospice. Her doctor said that her body had begun the process of dying.

Though she survived 6 months of hospice, her doctor convinced her that her body was still in the process of dying, and she moved home to Colorado to die.

My mum didn’t die. In fact, six weeks after returning to Colorado, she and I were arrested together in Washington, DC, fighting for disability justice. She became active in her community and lived almost 12 years!