Why the disability community opposes assisted suicide

EDITOR'S NOTE: The state of Hawaii recently examined a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. This is a letter from the founder and President of Not Dead Yet that clearly and concisely explains why people with disabilities may oppose such legislation.

Dear Hawaii Legislator:

Eleven national disability organizations have taken a position against legalization of assisted suicide. Many of them have chapters in Hawaii. You may find them on our website at www.notdeadyet.org. 

This disability opposition is not based on any religious perspective, and these organizations are strong supporters of civil rights. In fact, our opposition to legalization of assisted suicide is that it violates our right to equal protection of the law, and violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, to set up a double standard for the manner in which society responds to suicidal people, a two-tiered system whereby some people are given suicide intervention and others are given suicide assistance. 

This double-standard has already been proven to be a direct threat to the lives of people with disabilities, whether those disabilities are terminal or not, and disabled lives have already been lost. People with disabilities live on the front lines of the health care system, a system all too ready to deny needed care to save money, a system all too lacking in accountability. This is not a system in which to introduce a virtually blanket immunity for physicians to carry out a new form of medical killing. 

In Oregon, on which the opponents of our equality under the law rely most heavily, the state reports demonstrate: (1) that up to 466 days have passed between the request for a lethal prescription and death, so, clearly, people with non-terminal conditions (death in 180 days) are receiving lethal prescriptions; and (2) people are mostly requesting assisted suicide because of psycho-social issues, such as feeling like a burden on family, and fears about future loss of function associated with increases in disability. People with disabilities are very familiar with these issues from personal experience, and we do not consider it "choice" for a society to address these issues by ensuring the death of the individual.

If assisted suicide is such a good thing, if it's really about "autonomy," then why not make it available to all suicidal people, why just for old, ill and disabled people? Assisted suicide advocates call it "death with dignity," because they see disability as profoundly undignified. The discrimination inherent in assisted suicide laws, the devaluation of old, ill and disabled people at the heart of these laws, must be rejected. As our society ages, medical killing cannot be the answer to the challenges that await us.

Sincerely,
Diane Coleman, J.D., President
Not Dead Yet
7521 Madison St.
Forest Park, IL 60130
(708) 209-1500