Rochester Disability Community Remembers Disabled Victims of Domestic Violence, Deaf Victims of Euthanasia as Part of National Disability Mourning Day

Rochester Disability Community Remembers Disabled Victims of
Domestic Violence, Deaf Victims of Euthanasia as Part of National Mourning Day

As part of a nation-wide Day of Mourning, local disability rights advocates will be holding a memorial service this Friday called “Remembering Lives Taken” to honor the lives of disabled people murdered by their families and caretakers.  Rochester activists will also call attention to the recent euthanasia of two deaf men in Belgium.

Domestic violence against people with disabilities has been a pressing issue for local disability rights activists following recent deaths in New York State. In 2006, Ulysses Stable, a twelve-year-old autistic boy, was stabbed to death by his father in their Bronx home. In 2010, Laura Cummings, a 23-year-old North Collins woman with an intellectual disability, was tortured to death after years of physical abuse by her mother and brother. Later that year, pharmaceutical millionaire Gigi Jordan killed her eight-year-old autistic son, Jude Mirra, with an overdose of prescription medications in Manhattan. Also in 2010, Kenneth Holmes, a twelve-year-old autistic boy from the Bronx, was shot by his mother in a murder-suicide. In 2011,  Julie Cirella, a Long Island eight-year-old with cerebral palsy, was killed by her mother, who fed her peanut M&Ms to induce anaphylactic shock due to Cirella’s severe allergy.

The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, Not Dead Yet, and the National Council on Independent Living held the first Day of Mourning in 2012 as a response to the murder of George Hodgins, a 22-year-old autistic man from California.

30 cases occurring in the US, in which a disabled person was killed by a family member, have been reported by the media in the last five years. The number of actual murders that occurred in that time is likely higher than the cases which received press coverage.

Little public attention is paid to the murders of people with disabilities. Media coverage and public discourse about such killings frequently justifies them as “understandable” and sometimes “merciful,” rather than appropriately condemning these crimes and those who commit them. The national Day of Mourning is a time for the disability community to commemorate the many lives cut short. By honoring disabled victims of murder and celebrating the lives that they lived, these vigils send a message that disability is not a justification for violence.

The Remembering Lives Taken Memorial Service will be held this Friday at 11:00 AM at the Center for Disability Rights, 497 State Street, Rochester.

Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) is an inclusive international non-profit organization run by and for autistic people.  ASAN seeks to advance the vision of the disability rights movement in the world of autism. Drawing on the principles of the cross-disability community on issues such as inclusive education and community living, ASAN focuses on organizing the community of autistic adults and youth to have our voices heard in the national conversation about us. In addition, ASAN works to advance the idea of neurological diversity by furthering the view that the goal of autism advocacy should not be to create a world without autistic people. Instead, it should be to create a world in which autistic people enjoy the same access, rights, and opportunities as all other citizens.

Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination against old, ill and disabled people. Not Dead Yet helps organize and articulate opposition to these practices based on secular social justice arguments. Not Dead Yet demands the equal protection of the law for the targets of so called “mercy killing” whose lives are seen as worthless.

The National Council on Independent Living is the longest-running national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. Founded in 1982, NCIL represents thousands of organizations and individuals including: Centers for Independent Living (CILs), Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs), individuals with disabilities, and other organizations that advocate for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities throughout the United States.