From disTHIS.com
AUTONOMY Press Release 11/22/2005
By Staff
Dec 30, 2005, 09:39
Boston, 11/22/2005 - Members of the Board of AUTONOMY strongly disagree with the October Bulletin “opposing legalizing assisted suicide” from the National Council on Disability (NCD).
Paul Spiers, AUTONOMY Board Chairman responds, “NCD fails to represent the political, religious and ethnically diverse views of persons with disabilities. Polls show a majority of the disability community favors passage of laws providing choice at the end of life.” He added, “AUTONOMY encourages leaders of other disability organizations to adopt a neutral stance on the Oregon law and on legislative efforts to provide a compassionate choice at life’s end for their constituents. It is important for these organizations to realize that a vocal few do not speak for a majority of the disability community. Persons with disabilities are, in fact, far more vulnerable in states where the transparency enshrined in the Oregon law does not exist.”
Alan Toy of UCLA, AUTONOMY’s Board Secretary comments, “The issue of physician assisted dying is more about personal choice than disability rights. Personal choice is something the disability community is unanimously in favor of when it comes to living. Well, I would ask NCD, isn’t making a well-controlled choice to die a bit sooner in the face of a terminal illness, an independent choice made by the living? How dare we take away their choice, based on our fear of being devalued as human beings? We devalue them and ourselves by presuming to make that choice for them.”
The Oregon law authorizes an adult to obtain a lethal prescription to hasten their impending death when two physicians agree that a mentally competent person is terminally ill. Anecdotal information provided by the Oregon Hospice Association and Compassion & Choices, a public interest organization providing clinical services to terminally ill patients, shows that not a single person using the law has done so for the sole purpose of escaping a pre-existing disability.
According to Karen Hwang, EdD, an author and counseling psychologist who serves on the AUTONOMY Board, and who is herself quadriplegic, "Many of us believe the vulnerability argument is inherently discriminatory because it denies our capacity for informed consent, and makes blanket assumptions about the entire disability population's perception of life and death - exactly what proponents of vulnerability decry in the current medical and social establishment."
AUTONOMY represents the interests of people with disabilities who wish to be able to exercise choice in all aspects of life, including choice at the end of life. Other AUTONOMY board members include James Werth, PhD from the University of Akron, Cornelius Baker, former Executive Director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, and Louis Hall, a disability rights advocate living in Oregon.
Baruch College CUNY Hosts Panel Discussion
On October 25th, 2005, Paul Spiers and Karen Hwang of the AUTONOMY Board spoke on a panel at Baruch College in New York city. The topic for the panel to consider was The Right to a Compassionate Choice at Life's End. Is it right for everyone? The panel was moderated by Christopher Rosa of Student Affairs at the City University of New York. Speakers included Paul and Karen for AUTONOMY, Attorney T.K. Small, speaking for Not Dead Yet, and members of the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State. There was a heated discussion concerning the vulnerability of those born with significant developmental disabilities, and whether they might be victimized by laws allowing Physician-Assisted Dying. Comments from the audience, and some of the panelists, emphasized that persons with disabilities should have their voice heard in making such health care decisions. Many concluded that PAD laws, such as that in Oregon, protect rather than endanger the disability community. The program was followed by a reception hosted by Compassion & Choices of NY.
Hammer Museum Hosts Panel Discussion
Alan Toy of AUTONOMY speaks on panel at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California. Given public interest in the Compassionate Choice Act, a bill proposed in the California legislature by representatives Berg and Levine, the Hammer Museum in Westwood next to UCLA held a panel discussion on Physician Assisted Dying. The panel included Alan Toy, Frank Wulf, a Methodist minister, David Kessler, a hospice nurse and author, and Barbara Combs Lee, President and Co-CEO of Compassion & Choices. The panel and the audience supported the idea of empowerment at the end of life and explored this theme, with the audience asking many questions and making statements of their own. The program was covered by KFWB radio and Channel 7, the ABC affiliate, interviewed some of the panelists.
Supreme Court hears Gonzales v. Oregon
On October 5th, in Washington, DC, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case that was started by former Attorney General John Ashcroft to criminalize the medical practice of providing lethal prescriptions to patients in Oregon who wish to avail themselves of that state’s death with dignity law. The case has been in the Courts since 2001 and the Bush administration’s attempt to extend federal powers using the Controlled Substances Act has been rejected by State Courts in Oregon and the Federal Circuit Court, repeatedly.
AUTONOMY filed a respondents’ Amicus [Friend of the Court] Brief, which can be read or downloaded from the Home page. Representing AUTONOMY, Paul Spiers was present in the Court while Diane Coleman and her supporters protested outside. Paul, in the company of representatives from other respondent organizations, visited with the Editorial Board of the Washington Post two days before, and the Post later published an article suggesting that the federal government needed to leave Oregon alone. Paul also was present for a press conference at the National Press Club, and visited with legal counsel to a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the supposed opposition of the disability community to the Oregon law.
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