What About Providing Aid in Living?

Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to pass legislation (A136/S138), the Medical Aid in Dying Act, to legalize state-sanctioned suicide [and euthanasia] for those diagnosed with a terminal illness. We strongly urge the New York State Senate to reject this legislation and we urge you to contact your state senators and ask them to vote against this legislation. Click here to contact your state senator.  

Proceeding down this path would be both a moral and practical failure, violating the sanctity of life and leading to a further erosion in the health and well-being of society’s most vulnerable.

New York Talking Points, Including Commentary by Dawn Eskew & Margaret Dore

Dear Angela & Senator Palumbo, 

In attachments are the talking points I referred to you in our conversation this morning. I can not stress enough to urge everyone on our side to stay clear away from bringing up religion, moral theology, prolife, and things like that.

The problem is the proposed Bill is a Bad Policy Bill, and the reasons pointed out should be our mantra.

One can be for the concept, but not these bills. (2025 #A136 & #S138).

I will be dropping off to your office , as discussed, our brochure which contains all of the short bullet points.

Most Sincerely, 

Dawn C . Eskew1.631.487.7578

-------------------------------------------

My friend Margaret Dore [pictured above], who is copied here, provided me with four publications, which may be of help.  Please see below.

1)

Margaret Dore Featured by Hope Australia

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.

Judicial Watch Sues New York State for Records on Controversial Killing of ‘Peanut the Squirrel’ and ‘Fred the Raccoon’

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for records about the seizure, testing and euthanizing of a squirrel named “Peanut” and a raccoon named “Fred” belonging to Pine City, New York, resident Mark Longo (Judicial Watch Inc. v Sean Mahar, Interim Commissioner, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (No. 902596-25)). 

Judicial Watch filed suit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Albany County, after the Department of Environmental Conservation failed to comply with two FOIL requests for written and video records related to Peanut and Fred. The first, filed on November 6, 2024, seeks:

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.

Clashes Break Out at Anti-Israel Protest in Brooklyn Jewish neighborhood

by Luke Tress, Times of Israel, February 19, 2025:

NEW YORK — Anti-Israel protest groups staged a rally in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, berating the residents as “settlers” and “Zionists” and sparking fights with pro-Israel counterprotesters. 

The protest, led by the Pal-Awda activist group, took place in Boro Park, an area with a large Orthodox population.

Around 200 anti-Israel protesters gathered on a street in the neighborhood within a barricaded area set up by police. A crowd of Jewish residents and other pro-Israel counterprotesters demonstrated on the sidewalk across the street. Dozens of police officers separated the two sides. The protest began just after sundown and the temperature was below freezing.  

The anti-Israel protesters chanted, “settlers settlers go back home, Palestine is ours alone,” “Zionists go to hell,” and “We don’t want no Zionists here.” Most wore masks or keffiyehs to cover their faces.

New York State Issues Mask Mandate

As of mid-December, New York state health care workers who have not received an influenza vaccine have to wear masks when working in places where residents or patients are present in facilities.

In a Dec. 18 statement, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald [pictured right] declared that the “flu is prevalent across the State means healthcare personnel who are not vaccinated against the flu this season need to take extra precautions and wear a mask in healthcare facilities to avoid exposing sick patients and those most vulnerable to complications of the virus.”

His declaration on requiring masking did not mention COVID-19, only influenza. During the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments, as well as private businesses, required masks due to the virus.

New York State Bar Outlines 2025 Legislative Priorities, Aiming for Fairness, Equity

By Brian Lee, original publication 12/18/24.

At the approach of the 2025 legislative session, New York’s largest bar association announced that it will lobby Albany lawmakers to enact right-to-counsel measures for children, families and immigrants in New York.

The new priorities, the statewide bar group said, will move the state closer to creating a more fair and equitable justice system.

The New York State Bar Association said it will also continue to advocate fervently for a series of past proposals that have failed to become law.

Mayor Adams on Hearing the People and Other Matters

The Democrat mayor made the comments while speaking to Fox News's Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, in which he also discussed the illegal immigration crisis impacting the city.

The host asked Adams what he thought of President-elect Donald Trump's sweeping victory over Harris, in which he secured substantial support in the five NYC boroughs that have historically voted Democrat. McCollum inquired as to where the Democratic Party had gone wrong.

"We stopped speaking to people, we started speaking at people," Mayor Adams told McCollum. "Not hearing the people and you engaging in dialogue while individuals are fearful of affordability, losing their home, the future of their children, and you're having these intellectual conversations, and people are, like, saying, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm hurting and you're asking, 'Is Donald Trump Hitler or not?'" Adams said. "It's just not talking to the real needs of the people."

Daniel Penny Acquitted in Subway Chokehold Death

By Ben Kochman, Kyle Schnitzer and Emily Crane.

Marine veteran Daniel Penny [wearing brown jacket] was acquitted by a Manhattan jury Monday in the choke hold death of Jordan Neely – a lightning-rod case that cast a light on the mayhem plaguing Big Apple subways.

Jurors cleared Penny, a 26-year-old Long Islander, of criminally negligent homicide after the fatal caught-on-camera encounter on an uptown F train last year sparked fierce debate about mental illness, public safety and vigilantism.

A suited-up Penny, who remained stone-faced for much of the four-week trial, broke out a huge smile as his not guilty verdict was read out – prompting both applause and anger inside the courtroom as the high-profile case came to an end.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – who quickly faced calls to resign for bringing the case against Penny in the first place — said he respected the jury’s ruling and insisted prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end.”

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said after the verdict. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged.”

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.

More on Diane Coleman

Over the weekend, Diane Coleman [pictured right] of Not Dead Yet passed away. She was an icon in our movement and – personally – my mentor and friend.

When you met Diane, you immediately recognized that she was brilliant, with the rare exception of her vocational rehabilitation counselor. Her VR counselor apparently found Diane a job counting commercials, so she could work and wouldn’t even need to leave the house. Diane had other plans which meant moving to California and getting both a law degree (juris doctor) and a master’s in business administration. Armed with a JD/MBA, Diane worked for the California Department of Corporations as an attorney and volunteered her time for the disability rights and independent living movements. She served on the board of the Westside Center for Independent Living (now called Disability Community Resource Center) and used her vacation leave to participate in ADAPT actions which were focused at the time on securing access to public transportation. Diane was an ADAPT activist and organizer who – with Tom Olin and Lillibeth Narvarro – started the Los Angeles chapter of ADAPT in 1987.

Diane’s activist heart took her to (just outside) Nashville, Tennessee with Tom Olin, Carol Gill and Larry Voss. When she left her position in California, her coworkers sent her off with a gift of a bullhorn and handcuffs!

In Memory of Diane Coleman (Pictured Below)

https://www.newcomerrochester.com/obituaries/diane-coleman

The family will receive friends, 1 pm -4 pm Sunday November 10, 2024 at New Comer Cremations and Funerals, 6 Empire Blvd. (next to Donut's Delight). A funeral service will begin promptly following visitation at 4 pm.

Diane has been an accomplished person from an early age! Diane, shortly after birth was diagnosed with some form of Muscular Dystrophy. She defied all odds after telling her parents William and Dolores Coleman that she might not live past her teens. 

Diane went on to Graduate from Loy Norris High School as Valedictorian of her class. She then went on to University of Illinois to continue her studies. While there she lived independently and learned to drive a handicapped equipped van! Her parents were in amazement with all of her accomplishments! 

But then she continued by moving on to Los Angeles, California and attended UCLA and Graduated with her Law Degree. Then went on to pass the California State Bar. Shortly after, she went on to work for the State of California as a Lawyer for about 12 years. 

Diane became active in the disability rights movement with the group ADAPT. She was a big advocate in getting lifts on all buses! She was involved in many protests, being arrested many times for the cause.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Foe of Drug Makers and Regulators, Is Poised to Wield New Power

The New York Times reported:

 

When 12,000 public health professionals gathered in Minneapolis last week for the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, issued a pointed warning about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“If R.F.K. has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines,” Dr. Adams said. “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”