Disability Rights and Independent Living Center Advocates Once Again Oppose Assisted Suicide in Assembly Appropriations Committee Wednesday


SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Advocates from
organizations representing people with disabilities and independent living
centers will once again be at the Capitol to help defeat AB 374, a bill
legalizing physician- assisted suicide in California that is set to be
voted on by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Wednesday, April 18th.
The Independent Living Center of San Francisco wrote, "We strongly
oppose the legalization of assisted suicide in California because
individuals, including those with disabilities, do not have access to
sufficient medical care ... Without true choices in care, individuals who
have unmet medical needs, insufficient finances to cover necessary care or
who feel they are or will be a burden to their loved ones could be forced
into choosing to end their life."
FREED Center for Independent Living argues against assisted suicide in
their position that, "Proponents do not make the connection between
assisted suicide and the lack of adequate health services, but to ignore
this connection is to miss the point ... Medical costs are soaring and
access to needed care is stretching further beyond the reach of many.
People with disabilities who require a significant level of health care
services are the most likely subjects of assisted suicide discussions."
For those under the misguided impression that this legislation only
applies to "terminal" patients, we refer you to a letter from the
California Hospice and Palliative Care Association to the Senate Judiciary
Committee regarding assisted suicide,
Diagnosing a terminal illness is not an exact science. Studies have
confirmed that prognostic error in the case of terminal illness occurs
frequently. In a study of 365 doctors and 504 hospice patients conducted
by Nicholas Christakis at the University of Chicago, only 20% of
prognoses were accurate. Data available from the Office of Statewide
Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) shows that in 2004, 700 hospice
patients were discharged "live" because they no longer met the hospice
eligibility criteria of having less than six months to live.
For more information about the diverse coalition of organizations
aligned against physician-assisted suicide,

this is very hurtful subject to me because~ I love people

I am against ethnic cleansing and killing the profoundly disabled...
the old man who was shot to death at VA. tech, was a "Holocaust survivor"..

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...y-Shooting.php
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Related links:

http://www.CA-AAS.com/

they should have kept terri schiavo alive

http://www.terrisfight.org/

I hesitate to even jump into this discussion Tena, Clouds....because I also love people and when the subject title is the "Dehumanizing the Disabled in America" there is no argument....it's wrong.''

But!!!! When someone is terminally ill, with no hope of recovery....when they suffer from chronic pain with the promise of more forever...when the quality of their lives will not ever improve...I believe they should have the choice to say enough already...without the world judging them for making the choice and threatening drs. who are trying to help them.

I believe it's about having the freedom to choose for ourselves.

This is a tough one for me too because what can be humane to one person can be inhumane to another. I'm not sure a law can solve such a moral dilemma.

I've known my next door neighbor for some 40 years. I used to babysit her when she was a toddler. Like me, she and her husband moved into her parents former home when they moved out. They were both very healthy.

In June, 2002 (at the age of 46) her husband Christopher had a massive heart attack while working out at a nearby health club. There was a delay because no one noticed him at first, and defibrillators (though present) were never used on him.

He was rushed to the hospital, underwent emergency surgery, and doctors fixed his heart. His brain, after going without oxygen for so long, never recovered.

When he was still "hooked up," my friend had the option to pull the plug. She was given hope that he might recover. Local church members were praying their hearts out and bringing her food. Everyone promised their little daughter her daddy would recover because "God works miracles."

NADA - nothing. She even traveled to Tijuana for a controversial stem cell transplant. No improvement....just wiped out their savings.

Doctors have given up on them - so have all the church members. With the help of her mother, she cares for her husband all by herself. It is a LOT of work - a LOT. She can't even maintain eye contact with him - no response whatsoever. Their hopeful little girl has turned into a bitter handful - same thing with their teenage daughter.

My friend tells me she would have opted for pulling the plug if she would have known it would turn out like this. We knew Christopher well enough to know he wouldn't want to live in that way or be such a burden to his wife and children. However, at this point we're talking "murder," not "assisted suicide." Pulling a plug is one thing - starving a loved one to death is another matter. She doesn't have the heart to do that to the man she loves, and I don't blame her. It doesn't help that the little one says she'll never speak with her again if she kills her "dead daddy."

She placed him in a nursing home, but they dropped him the first week he was there. She no longer trusts strangers to care for him.

It has been very hard for me to watch. I care very much for my friend, and it's taking it's toll on her. I worry sometimes that she may end up in the same boat, but I don't feel I have a right to tell her what to do. This is something she'll have to live with for the rest of her life - not me. I don't think lawyers and politicians in Washington care any more for her than I do - or know what's best for her any more than she does.

Oh Lordy....I have to be careful here because I feel so passionately about this subject that I could just let it all hang out and let the chips fall where they may.

No, of course the lawyers and politicians don't care anything at all about what you and I might want KathyM...well, maybe the occasional one might but for the most part they want to get re elected so they can continue doing what ever it is they do.

I "lost" a wonderfully talented niece to galloping MS. Her stomach muscles lost the ability to digest food....this on top of her many other loses...the ability to draw and paint....to walk...In order for her to live...they wanted to put in a feeding tube and she chose "no". The consequences were made very clear to her....that she would starve to death. She chose no...the quality of her life was more important to her than the length of it. And she'd lived a life of quality...she was a giver.

Who could fault her decision? Certainly not those of us who loved and respected her. She had the courage of her convictions...she had grit.

I am not advocating this choice for others...it's a personal decision...or at least it should be!

I just found out last weekend that my Niece that is only 4 1/2 months old right now,was diagnosed with a condition that is a form of Dwarfism,to where her body won't grow to a normal size,like a "Little Person",with shortened legs,and arms.But it will effect her health,because her internal organs will develop as if she was a normal sized person! It's so sad,because she was just born with it,and you look at her now,and she is such an innocent little infant,an adorable little girl that has no idea what is in store for her in the future. Society looks at the "Little People" as freaks,as if they belong in the circus,and it's not thier fault,and they're no different than you or I,other than size.She will be made fun of,teased at school,the emotional ramifacations will be almost as bad as the medical,and it's not right! I mentioned to my brother about homeschooling,just to save her the torment,he actually thought it was probably a good idea.I just don't want to see her suffer,like anybody else.I don't like it when people make fun of the disabled,because I'm one of them! And it really hurts more than people think it does,it really does!

you might like the book"the little locksmith"

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Locksmi.../dp/1558612394

From Publishers Weekly
Upon its original publication in 1943, Hathaway's testament to a full life despite debilitating disease earned glowing reviews and became a bestsellerAand then dropped utterly out of sight. Rediscovered by the Feminist Press, this remarkably un-self-pitying book remains poignant and truthful. As a child in Salem, Mass., Hathaway was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis and, in the most advanced treatment of the time, was strapped to a board from head to toe and kept immobile for 10 years. During this period of enforced introversion, she developed astonishing inner resources and imagination, and a meticulous appreciation for life's details that would inform her work. When she regained mobility at age 15, she found her disability a forbidden topic and realized that a "deformed" girl was automatically expected to become a spinster aunt, forever dependent on her family for love and companionship. Hathaway heartily rebelled, moving and buying herself a large clapboard house in Maine, where she proceeded with the business of living. Hathaway treats the actual events in her life as practically irrelevant: the story she emphasizes is her spiritual and creative struggle to claim "selfish" time to write, her intense loneliness, her startlingly frank observations about her sexuality and her rebellion against the belief that an imperfect person does not experience desire. Hathaway's simple descriptions of the writing process are beautiful and on the mark. We're left wishing for the planned second and third volumes, which Hathaway did not have time to write before her death in 1942. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hey Alfeee!!
I do agree with you on those other individuals, just not Terri's case or possibly any that may resemble this in the future law cases.
I believe there is a humane way for people to die, but this was wrong in Terri's case she was profoundly mentally impaired, to some extent ,
but she was mostly alive & loved by all her family- letting the ex-husband who more than likely tried to murder her, I say pish tosh!!
he is/ was an a$$hole
he wanted money
Michael S. had a 2nd wife (tramp) if he and she had lived in a state that said, the law was "common Law marriage"if you live together as man and wife you are married!

One of those states is Kansas, and you are married not by the seven years of living together plan,(that is just an ole wives tale) just by living together as one, the nice way to say
in Kansas a several other states -you are man and wife especially if you write the one spouse off your taxes.

I believe this would be okay if this was a terminal illness -and the dear one signed a Living Will, with legitimate witnesses.
but this was a horrid thing that was done to Terri.

I beleive in individuality of cases, and not a rule of thumb -such as what was handed out, like a parking ticket.

I just do not like the Michael S. -having any say -when he was not her husband/owner anymore! and as for the Judge, he was a corrupt heartless
man


IMHO -
this has been an excruciatingly looooooooooooong presidency for a very unpopular prez.

I'm going to order that book Clouds...thank you!

And Tena...that is a beautiful picture of your mom.