MCIL News Release Archive
				National ADAPT
				M C I L
				Tennessee ADAPT
				Not Dead Yet!
				B F M S

NEWS RELEASE

July 27, 2001

CONTACT:

• Diane Coleman, J.D., Executive Director, Stephen Drake or Carol Cleigh   (708) 209-1500

Not Dead Yet, a U.S. disability rights group opposed to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, voiced its support of the draft report of the UN Human Rights Committee issued Thursday.

The draft report issued by the committee yesterday expressed carefully-worded concern over the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands and its potential impact. The committee report said "such a practice may lead to routinisation and insensitivity to the strict application of the requirements." The committee also expressed skepticism over the very few negative assessments made in over 2000 cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands. The report states: "The large numbers involved raise doubts whether the present system is being used in extreme cases in which all the substantive conditions are scrupulously maintained."

"The UN Human Rights Commission is finally addressing what has been public knowledge for years. The Dutch experience with euthanasia is best described as one of increasing carelessness and callousness over the years. The strict guidelines under which euthanasia was decriminalized for many years have been widely ignored, according to published reports in the Netherlands," said Stephen Drake, research analyst. "In spite of admitted widespread abuses, only a handful of doctors have even been prosecuted for violating guidelines. Out of that group, the ones who have been convicted of violating Dutch protocols have received suspended sentences and other legal equivalents of a light slap on the wrist."

The last such case occurred earlier this year. It involved a physician who killed his elderly patient without discussing it with her and without consulting other doctors. The court found him guilty of murder and violating guidelines, but refused to impose a sentence.

NDY President Diane Coleman is cautiously supportive of the report. "Euthanasia in Holland is routinised and widely unreported already. Nonterminal disabled adults and infants are euthanized routinely in Holland, often without consent."

Not Dead Yet sees disturbing parallels between the history of the Dutch "toleration" of euthanasia and the current spin being put on data coming from Oregon, which is the only state in the U.S. where assisted suicide is legal.

In addition to Not Dead Yet, ten other national U.S. disability rights organizations have taken formal positions opposing legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. They are: American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), Association of Rural Independent Living (APRIL), Disability Rights and Education Fund (DREDF), Justice For All, National Council on Disability, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, TASH (A civil rights group for, and of, people with developmental disabilities), World Association of Persons with Disabilities, and World Institute on Disability.

Local, Memphis:

Tim Wheat
(901) 726-6404 * (901) 726-6521 fax
1633 Madison Avenue  - Memphis TN 38104

National:

Steve Drake

Diane Coleman
(708) 209-1500 ext. 11
7521 Madison St.
Forest Park, IL 60130

The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue, 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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