by Diane Coleman
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| Not Dead Yet! |
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| A History of Not Dead Yet by Diane Coleman |
founder of Not Dead Yet
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Not Dead Yet is a national disability rights group which opposes the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, because of the lethal danger to this nation's largest minority group, people with disabilities. Not Dead Yet
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Donna Redpord from Arizona wrote: "Put your energy into advocating for the Americans with Disabilities Act, fair housing, and home- and community-based services like attendant care. Then your "clients" wouldn't think that death is their only option."
Protesters crowded the narrow road, and police escorted cars through slowly. Organizers later learned that Kevorkian was driving toward the group when police warned him away.
After negotiations with police, Not Dead Yet activists placed a big, bulging envelope of Letters To Jack inside Kevorkian's screen door to greet him when he returned.
That same week, medical ethicists gathered at Michigan State University in Lansing to discuss physician-assisted suicide and health care rationing against people with disabilities.
Do you see the connection between these topics?
The keynote address was "Futilitarianism, Exoticare, and Coerced Altruism: The ADA Meets its Limits.
Translation: Health care for some disabled people is futile, exotic, and is being forced on the medical profession by the ADA. No speakers with disabilities were scheduled at the conference.
Not Dead Yet protesters arrived carrying signs like, "Health Care Not Death Care" and "Medical Ethicists are Not Ethical."
The influential conference leaders, Drs. Leonard Fleck and Howard Brody, hustled right over to Not Dead Yet.
We had plans for what to do if we were arrested or locked out. We didn't expect the ethicists to unconditionally surrender, but that is exactly what they did.
They invited Not Dead Yet activists inside to hear and repond to sessions on physician-asisted suicide and health care rationing.
One of our most moving speakers was Maria Matzik, who spoke out about her neglect and abuse by the medical community. Doctors had told her not to go on a ventilator when breathing became difficult. "That would be a fate worse than death," they'd advised.
Now a successful ventilator user who works at the center for independent living in Dayton, Ohio, Maria blasted the medical profession for its ignorance.
"Many people believe they would rather be dead than be like us," Matzik said. "So if one of us becomes depressed and suicidal, most people conclude that our feelings are rational. They don't try to understand or respond to whatever our real problem might be.
"Nowadays, with the rise of managed care and the popularity of Dr. Kevorkian, we can't afford to get depressed - some doctor might just help us die."
Most of the people attending the conference were members of hospital ethics committees. Only two reported having a person with a disability on their committees.
Not Dead Yet put the medical community on notice, presenting these demands:
Newspapers from Philadelphia to San Francisco reported on the protests - and objectives - of Not Dead Yet.
Two days after our return from Not Dead Yet's opening salvo in Michigan, Illinois members gathered outside the American Medical Association's annual meeting at a Chicago hotel. AMA delegates had convened to vote on policy issues such as assisted suicide. The AMA has long opposed legalization, but recently some members have challenged that policy.
When hotel security threatened to remove the protesters who were leafletting peacefully at the door, AMA officials rushed to invite us in to witness the formal proceedings. (Surrender again!)
During the proceedings, one doctor pointed out that the pro-suicide proposal resembled pre-war German policies, when disabled people were the first to be seen as expendable "for the greater good."
By voice vote, the AMA affirmed its existing anti-death policy. The vote was 398 to 2.
On July 29, Not Dead Yet's Washington, DC, contingent confronted Kevorkian. He had been invited to speak at the National Press Club.
None of the resulting press reports was favorable to Kevorkian. One television reporter called him "totally strange... seeing himself as a persecuted martyr for the cause of death on demand."
Our brothers and sisters deserve the same suicide prevention measures which save the lives of non-disabled people. Instead, we are condemned to a "good death."
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear arguments on this subject. As the Netherlands experience proves, once assisted suicide is accepted, the involuntary euthanasia of disabled people will become a commonplace.
We must act now.
Here's how to join in:
Opposing the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is controversial, even among disabled people. But here's the simple truth: legalization threatens the lives of only one minority group - ours.
If assisted suicide is a "good death" for disabled and ill people who request it, then why not for anyone who requests it?
Why is there a double standard based on health status? Do we cost too much? Are we too much trouble to keep alive?
If we don't speak out against these beginnings of genocide aimed at our people, who will?
The Memphis Center for Independent Living
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Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org
MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency
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