tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67446871927047725942010-01-06T13:02:16.404-06:00Since 1983, many people with disabilities have opposed the assisted suicide and euthanasia movement. Though often described as compassionate, legalized medical killing is really about a deadly double standard for people with severe disabilities, including both conditions that are labeled terminal and those that are not. In the photo, members of Not Dead Yet from across the nation protest in Boston Masachusetts outside of the 2000 conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.comBlogger270125NotDeadYetNewsCommentaryhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-17716596500961678712010-01-05T13:35:00.000-06:002010-01-05T13:35:51.103-06:002010-01-05T13:35:51.103-06:00

This latest gap in posts was a little longer than planned.  The holiday weeks were filled with several crises, all of which turned out OK, but took away time, attention and energy. I did a little housecleaning here.  I deleted some comments waiting in the queue - they were both tiresome extensions of exchanges that were already pretty pointless. There's a lot happening and I'll be playing "

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-77661737638895697302009-12-29T12:50:00.001-06:002009-12-29T12:51:23.493-06:002009-12-29T12:51:23.493-06:00

Earlier this month, this blog shared the news of the emergence of a "new" pro-euthanasia group in Canada and its "awareness" campaign via faux "memorial plaques" (stickers, in reality) on park benches in Toronto.  At the time, the person or persons behind the group was a mystery. Not any longer.  According to the Toronto Star, it's the pet project of a couple of advertising professionals: The

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-60228775002026107572009-12-23T14:53:00.001-06:002009-12-24T05:50:01.455-06:002009-12-24T05:50:01.455-06:00

Celebrate Life is the magazine of the American Life League. I think this is the first time this blog has linked to anything from the publication.  The magazine has just published a short article by John Mallon that has been emailed to me from three different sources - all of them apparently thinking it's a great article. It isn't.  It contains smears of two medical professionals who have been

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-27249063361258481872009-12-22T14:38:00.001-06:002009-12-22T15:16:10.458-06:002009-12-22T15:16:10.458-06:00

(Note - please read to the end. The main point of this story is that the Final Exit Network seems to have taken some pains to eliminate traces of a November '08 press release that might interfere with current efforts to improve their public image. --Stephen) Unfortunately, there's been a small rash of elderly men killing - or attempting to kill - their ill wives in the past couple weeks.  One,

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-84092027157228640022009-12-17T13:34:00.000-06:002009-12-17T13:34:28.854-06:002009-12-17T13:34:28.854-06:00

From The Telegraph: In a submission to a consultation on relaxing the rules on assisted suicide - which ends today - a coaliton of five disabled groups, said that “to see suicide as the right solution is to abandon hope. Severely ill and terminally ill people do no deserve society to give up on them.” The group, which is lead by Baroness Campbell, accused others who were pushing for

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-65343117675120813092009-12-14T14:16:00.001-06:002009-12-14T14:34:02.210-06:002009-12-14T14:34:02.210-06:00

While no one could have predicted Robert Yagi's suicide, it shouldn't really come as a surprise.  Yagi was the 71-year-old-man charged with attempting to kill his wife with a flare gun loaded with a shotgun shell.  According to police, he planned to kill himself after killing her.  Friday's blog entry described how that half-baked plan resulted in his wife - who was in the hospital - receiving

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-17761823813496036422009-12-11T13:59:00.001-06:002009-12-14T13:16:23.948-06:002009-12-14T13:16:23.948-06:00

Here are a few recent killings that have made news around the country - New Rochelle man charged with murder in 'mercy killing' (NY): Paul Weinstein told police that an argument with his wife ”set him off“ and that he shot her dead in their New Rochelle home after he failed to suffocate her with a pillow. Later in the article, he says his wife was "losing it" and that he'd promised to help her

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-37926495433154961922009-12-10T14:34:00.002-06:002009-12-10T17:33:44.756-06:002009-12-10T17:33:44.756-06:00

From Alex Schadenberg at his blog for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: New Group Misrepresenting Canada's Euthanasia Law Excerpt: I received a call from Stephen Drake, the research director for Not Dead Yet, a disability rights group. Drake asked me whether I knew the group Dignity in Death? I answered no. In fact when I went to the website there was no information about who they actually

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-82627768786917830612009-12-01T14:17:00.001-06:002009-12-01T14:18:50.140-06:002009-12-01T14:18:50.140-06:00

Ben Mattlin is a disability activist and writer (he also gets paid for writing outside of the disability arena).  I've had the privilege of knowing him for over a decade. He's authored an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune that reflects the current realities many of us who have disabilities face in the health care system right now.  He also shares how so much of the debate around "reform" isn't

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-42076987637481563542009-11-25T15:18:00.003-06:002009-11-26T10:16:29.692-06:002009-11-26T10:16:29.692-06:00

Over the past week, there has been a lot of news coverage regarding the case of Rom Houben, a man in Belgium who was labeled as being in a persistent vegetative state.  He was severely injured in an auto accident in 1983, and since shortly after that has been regarded as being in a persistent vegetative state. Twenty-three years later, things looked very different.  Houben's family believed he

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-55268144668261277042009-11-12T14:53:00.000-06:002009-11-12T14:53:10.746-06:002009-11-12T14:53:10.746-06:00

Some good news from New Hampshire: A bill to legalize assisted suicide in New Hampshire lost key backing yesterday from a legislative committee when both supporters and opponents joined forces to reject it. The House Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 against the bill that would let terminally ill patients over age 18 obtain lethal prescriptions, with safeguards to prevent abuses. Supporters of

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-91101900624793361912009-11-11T14:18:00.004-06:002009-11-11T14:30:53.820-06:002009-11-11T14:30:53.820-06:00

This just in from Marilyn Golden, Policy Analyst at Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF):(The date for the events below was November 10, 2009)On Tuesday morning, three anti-assisted suicide advocates from the San Francisco Bay Area disability community, Paul Longmore, Walter Park, and myself came to the San Francisco Buddhist Center (which had been rented for the occasion but

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-12573180086386348922009-10-27T14:03:00.004-05:002009-10-27T15:39:47.289-05:002009-10-27T15:39:47.289-05:00

My reactions to what passes for a "health care" discussion in the US kind of vacillates - between eye-rolling and outright gagging. The ad below evokes both reactions. It's the latest from the Family Research Council, defenders of "family values" and who claim to respect and value human life.In the clip below, however, is a short exchange between a young boy and his grandfather, presumably when

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-5432128512161678612009-10-27T12:24:00.005-05:002009-10-27T13:18:56.005-05:002009-10-27T13:18:56.005-05:00

Update on the article that appeared in yesterday's edition of the Princetonian, which contained inaccurate and defamatory remarks about NDY.The online article has been revised. The article also carries an Editor's note at the end of the article, which we're told was published in today's print edition of the Princetonian:Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article inaccurately

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-61599751878628000912009-10-26T14:13:00.004-05:002009-10-26T15:36:22.128-05:002009-10-26T15:36:22.128-05:00

(Addendum) - Up top, in the interest of fairness. I just got off the phone with the Princetonian's Editor-in-Chief. He says that tomorrow's edition will carry an apology and correction. The post below is still relevant, though - everyone should know what the fuss is about. --Stephen DrakeLast week, I was contacted by a student working on a story for the Princetonian, the independent student

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-49020552011488254122009-10-07T14:33:00.003-05:002009-10-07T14:46:12.648-05:002009-10-07T14:46:12.648-05:00

Just a brief alert on this one, for anyone interested. Last week, I participated in a taping of a discussion of euthanasia with Dr. Bert Keizer on the show "The State We're In" on the English version of Radio Netherlands.It was a polite discussion, and we covered a lot of territory. Among other things, it turns out that Dr. Keizer, who performs euthanasia on patients in the Netherlands, finds

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-42586772884653999582009-10-07T13:43:00.002-05:002009-10-07T14:08:25.082-05:002009-10-07T14:08:25.082-05:00

For the most complete information on the Betancourt case, including links to other amicus briefs, the best resource I've found is the Medical Futility Blog by Thaddeus Mason Pope. Pope disagrees with NDY on a significant number of issues, but he's an impressive researcher who has posted links to research and news coverage that I've found valuable. He also seems to make an honest attempt to be a

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-16727276155197410422009-10-05T14:36:00.004-05:002009-10-05T16:21:28.108-05:002009-10-05T16:21:28.108-05:00

Last week, Not Dead Yet filed an amicus brief in Betancourt v. Trinitas, an Appellate court case in New Jersey. In additon to NDY, ADAPT, Center For Self-Determination, National Council on Independent Living, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, American Association of People with Disabilities, and Disability Rights New Jersey joined the brief as co-amici.Here's a summary of the case taken

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-15482400041677629182009-09-25T14:59:00.003-05:002009-09-25T15:09:26.098-05:002009-09-25T15:09:26.098-05:00

I'll be writing more on my own next week on this, but the Director of of Public Prosecutions in the UK issued his long-awaited "interim guidelines" on prosecutions in cases of friends/family assisting family members traveling to Switzerland to commit suicide.William Peace at Bad Cripple writes that the guidelines are a slam dunk for assisted suicide:I knew the guidelines released by Keir Starmer

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-70831945371273314352009-09-23T13:58:00.003-05:002009-09-23T14:34:31.947-05:002009-09-23T14:34:31.947-05:00

Steve Gold is a long time friend, ally and warrior in the disability rights movement. Of special interest to NDYers is that Steve was the primary author and Counsel of Record on the NDY amicus brief in the 1996 Supreme Court cases examining assisted suicide as a "constitutional right." Steve has written and filed other briefs on behalf of NDY since then, some of which can be found here.Many

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-61060892550153757852009-09-21T14:12:00.004-05:002009-09-21T15:33:05.832-05:002009-09-21T15:33:05.832-05:00

I'm late getting to this one. Last month BMJ published an editorial by Deputy Editor Tony Delamothe titled "Assisted Dying: what's disability got to do with it?"Here's his intro:The debate on assisted dying has been hijacked by disabled people who want to live. It needs to be reclaimed for terminally ill people who want to die Assisted dying, assisted suicide, assisted killing: call it what

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-58622560850205391472009-09-21T12:57:00.003-05:002009-09-21T13:23:50.059-05:002009-09-21T13:23:50.059-05:00

As often as possible, we like to make it a point to share what other bloggers (especially in the disability community) are saying about NDY-related topics.Our friends at Turner & Kowalski are saying that Suicide Prevention Week Failed Bigtime and invite you to explore the Disability Implicit Association Test.Day Al-Mohamed offers a "Quick Overview on Disability Issues" she's found in the Baucus

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-79215577954346624722009-09-18T12:03:00.002-05:002009-09-18T13:09:41.843-05:002009-09-18T13:09:41.843-05:00

Well, now that National Suicide Prevention Week is over, I guess the field is wide-open when it comes to romanticizing the suicides of people with disabilities in the popular press. Scary thought. Just when I get to the point where I think I've seen everything in terms of sensationalized coverage that condones and sympathizes with the suicides of people with disabilities, something new comes

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-26416982830204480582009-09-10T09:36:00.004-05:002009-09-10T12:03:18.578-05:002009-09-10T12:03:18.578-05:00

I'm not sure how many people are aware of this, but we are nearing the end of National Suicide Prevention Week (Sept. 6-12). In fact, today - September 10 - is World Suicide Prevention Day.For readers of this blog, it might have been easy to miss this important week. After all, there have been some strange acts of "recognition" in the press over the last week.For example, on Tuesday, September

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744687192704772594.post-52623891559094299782009-09-09T13:08:00.002-05:002009-09-09T13:37:01.734-05:002009-09-09T13:37:01.734-05:00

Last week, this blog devoted some space to the oral arguments held at the Montana Supreme Court over a lower court's finding of a "constitutional right" to assisted suicide for "terminally ill" people.Since then, there has been surprisingly little discussion about the decision being awaited in Montana. Nevertheless, some people have been moved to write on the topic and I want to highlight them

Not Dead Yetnoreply@blogger.com2