Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune, Ashcroft & Assisted Suicide

Diane Coleman, J.D. President Not Dead Yet 7521 Madison Street Forest Park, IL 60130 (708) 209-1500 Dear Editor: Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group based in Forest Park, supports U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's ruling forbidding the use of federally controlled substances in assisted suicide. We have condemned assisted suicide from the beginning as devaluing people with severe illnesses and disabilities, whether the disabilities are terminal or non-terminal in nature. As we argued in our amicus brief filed in the Oregon federal court, the Oregon assisted suicide law is a violation of our civil rights under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Frankly, we would have been glad to see the Department of Justice raise the ADA as a basis for federal civil rights intervention. This case turns the usual political alliances on federalism versus states rights upside down. Why should disabled and nondisabled people be treated differently when they tell someone they want to die? The latter gets care and support, while the former winds up dead. When it comes to discrimination against a minority group, like people with disabilities, states' rights are still states' wrongs. Diane Coleman, J.D. President Not Dead Yet 7521 Madison Street Forest Park, IL 60130 (708) 209-1500