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Articles and issues Below you'll find short descriptions and links to articles about a number of topics. If you're looking for an article on a specific topic and can't find it below, please email us and we'll try to locate it for you. If you have suggestions for other online articles we can include, please email us and let us know that as well. Assisted Suicide and Right to Die | Violence against Persons with Disabilities / "Mercy Killing" | Euthanasia | 'Vegetative State'/Consciousness Terri Schiavo | Jack Kevorkian | Peter Singer | Women & Assisted Suicide Assisted suicide / "right to die" (general) Society should no longer tolerate assisted suicide Not Dead Yet Board member Amy Hasbrock looks at the death of Quebecois Charles Fariala and asks, " If assisted suicide is such a good idea, shouldn't we make it available to all Canadians, not just people with disabilities or terminal illness?" This opinion article originally ran in the Feb. 6, 2006 Montreal Gazette. READ ARTICLE. Disability Groups File Amicus Brief in Gonzales v. Oregon Ten prominent disability organizations and one university-based policy center file a friend of the court brief May 9 with the U.S. Supreme Court in the Oregon assisted suicide case. Not Dead Yet's press release explains the issue. READ PRESS RELEASE. States' rights versus civil rights Commentary by Diane Coleman on the Oregon v. Gonzales Supreme Court case, printed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. READ COMMENTARY. The flaws in Oregon's suicide law Disability rights scholar and historian Paul Longmore writes in the Sacramento Bee. READ ARTICLE. Why Progressives Should Oppose the Legalization of Assisted Suicide Disability rights policy analyst and activist Marilyn Goldern writes in Beyond The Chronicle. READ ARTICLE. | Visit Californians Against Assisted Suicide website. Outside Court, Fierce Debate on State Law It may not be the ideal case for discussing such issues, Carrie Lucas tells The New York Times, but "it's the case we have." READ ARTICLE.. Fighting for our Lives at the ACLU. They kicked and screamed, writes Lucy Gwin in Mouth magazine -- but they got off the Right to Die bandwagon. She explains a presentation that worked. READ ARTICLE. Study: People with disabilities "tend to have reservations about legalizing assisted suicide" In a recent study, the majority of respondents with disabilities were opposed to assisted suicide for disabled people and feared that legalization would lead to involuntary deaths and discriminatory medical care. MORE. Disabled group objects to 'dignity' of assisted suicide, doubts motives Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman provides an overview of the disability rights opposition to the assisted-suicide movement in this opinion article that originally ran in the March 19, 2005 Rocky Mountain News. READ ARTICLE. Physician Assisted Death: Are We Asking the Right Questions? New Mobility editor Barry Corbet examined the common claims made for "physician-assisted suicide" from a disability rights perspective. READ ARTICLE from the May, 2003 issue of New Mobility. Changing the words, re-framing the issue: a brief history When certain aspects of disability health care policy get re-framed as "end of life care" policy by groups such as Partnership for Caring and Last Acts, the groups not only encroache on disability policy, but in re-naming it as something else, are able to bar our place at the policy-discussion table. Stephen Drake, in a July, 2003 article, takes a look at how all this came about. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge.. A bioethicist offers an apology (to disability activists) Prominent bioethicist Howard Brody apologizes to disability activists for ignoring the important points raised by disability activists in "right to die" cases. READ ARTICLE from the Oct. 6, 2004 Lansing (MI) City Pulse. Assisted Suicide and Disability An overview from Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman of disability rights legal issues surrounding assisted suicide. READ ARTICLE from the American Bar Association website. Why Assisted Suicide Must Not Be Legalized Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund Policy Analyst Marilyn Golden lays out the reasons DREDF opposes legalization of assisted suicide. READ ARTICLE. A battle waged in Boston: right to die vs. will to live Not Dead Yet's John Kelly takes a look at the 2000 meeting of the Hemlock Society in Boston, and what assisted suicide means to our society. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online (originally printed in The Boston Globe). Fighting for our Lives at the ACLU They kicked and screamed, but they got off the Right to Die bandwagon, writes Mouth magazine's Lucy Gwin in this 2005 report on activists' efforts to win over the Kansas ACLU. READ ARTICLE Violence against Persons with Disabilities / "Mercy Killing" Murder of Autistics This comprehensive and alarming website lists murders of persons with autism of all ages - at the hands of caregivers, family members, etc. VISIT SITE. Why we shouldn't blame the murders of disabled kids on lousy services Dick Sobsey, Director of the JP Das Developmental Centre at the University of Alberta, offers 11 reasons. READ ARTICLE. Look for Annie, Abuse. In 1995, journalist David Rundle read of the murder of a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy -- from starvation. He was appalled at the lack of passion with which the perpetrator - her mother - was prosecuted. The idea that this was an isolated case, he writes, made it endurable. Turns out the case - and the system's response -- aren't isolated ones at all. This opinion article originally ran in the Apr. 23, 2006 Wichita Eagle. READ ARTICLE. If I Am Killed Ballastexistenz's blogger writes, "This is about how I want you to remember the person who killed me: I don't want you furthering the stereotype that 'mental illness' or autism is an explanation or excuse for murder, by pitying the 'sick' person who did this instead of condemning the act equally no matter what the person's diagnosis. I don't want you to blame anyone's desperation, either. . . READ ARTICLE. No Mercy Chicago Reader columnist Mike Miner profiles Not Dead Yet and takes a look at the media's sympathy toward killers of people with disabilities. READ ARTICLE. Unravelling the myths of suicide pact cases This unusually good article by Gannett news reporter Stefanie Matteson in the Neptune, NJ Home News Tribune debunks popular myths surrounding murders framed as "mercy killings." READ ARTICLE. From 'Mercy Killing' to 'Domestic Violence: Shirley Harrison, the Chicago Media and Not Dead Yet When Shirley Harrison's husband shot her in early 2002, media reported it as a "mercy killing." Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake reports on the effort by Chicago Not Dead Yet activists to get reporters to understand it as domestic violence. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. Father's Day 2000 Dick Sobsey, Director of the JP Das Developmental Centre at the University of Alberta, reflects on fathers who kill their kids -- and Roy Rogers. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. Nothing Merciful about Katrina Killings Within days of Hurricane Katrina striking New Orleans, rumors surfaced of mercy killings and euthanasia at one or more hospitals in the area. They were more than rumors, writes Not Dead Yet's Stephen Drake. Read article from the Let's Get Together website. Mercy! Here We Go Again! Carol Carr shoots her two sons to death -- they have Huntington's disease and Atlanta media reports it as a "mercy killing." Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake looks at the 2002 news stories that were -- and weren't -- reported. READ ARTICLE Euthanasia Infant Euthanasia: Disability Group Blasts AP for Inaccurate Reporting Article from DIVERSITYINC.COM. Disabilities Week' Columnist Daniel J Vance writes, "Lately, Drake has been concerned about a growing movement in the Netherlands to accept a currently illegal form of euthanasia and a news service that has been spreading misinformation about this euthanasia." READ COLUMN. Euthanasia Is Out of Control in The Netherlands Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake says the bioethics community needs to be called to account for failing to correct media misunderstandings of the 2005 Groningen protocol story from The Netherlands. Read commentary from the Hasting Center Report, 35, no. 3 (2005). Euthanasia Opponents React to Holland's New Law Not Dead Yet's Laura Hershey looks at disability rights reaction to the Dutch Senate's 2001 decision to allow euthanasia. READ ARTICLE from Disability World. 'Vegetative State'/Consciousness Persistent Vegetative State/Permanent Vegetative State The name "persistent vegetative state" was coined to describe a state that is "neither unconsciousness nor coma in the usual sense of these terms... [but rather wakefulness without awareness." Definitions decided on at the outset have channelled the debate ever since. Australian bioethicist Chris Borthwick asks: is "persistent vegetative state" a syndrome in search of a name, or a judgement in search of a syndrome? He offers a compendium of articles at this site. Visit the website. Locked In In 1991 Jungian analyst Dr. James Hall became one of a handful of survivors of a rare pontine stroke. He also narrowly survived his own advance directive and his physicians' eagerness to implement it, since they believed he had lost all consciousness. READ ARTICLE from the October, 2002 issue of Psychology Today | Order Dr. Hall's memoir, Locked In To Life. Blink and You Live The "life and death" consequences of proving your consciousness after a brain injury. READ ARTICLE from the April 15, 2004 Guardian. Misdiagnosis of the vegetative state: A retrospective study in a rehabilitative unit This important study found 43 percent of the patients labeled "PVS" were, in fact, conscious. Important study widely and conveniently ignored by medical professionals and bioethicists in the U.S. READ STUDY from the British Medical Journal. Terri Schiavo Terri Schiavo-One Year After "Disability prejudice led to the demise of Ms. Schiavo," writes University of North Florida English professor Chris Gabbard in a look at the reasons behind Terri Schiavo's death. This opinion article originally ran in the March 31, 2006 Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union.. READ ARTICLE. Killed by Prejudice Terri Schiavo died on March 31, 2005, not from her 1990 brain injury but because of prejudice, the common assumption that life with a significant disability is not worth living, writes Laura Hershey. READ ARTICLE from TheNation.com. What the Disability Rights Movement Wants Not Dead Yet sets out 8 things that need to happen to safeguard against non-voluntary euthanasia in the U.S. READ ARTICLE. '"Federal Health Programs and Those Who Cannot Care for Themselves: What Are Their Rights, And Our Responsibilities?" Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman presents testimony Before the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Of the Committee on Government Reform on April 19, 2005. READ TESTIMONY. After Terri Schiavo Mary Johnson looks at why the disability rights movement spoke out, why some of us worried, and where do we go from here? READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. End of life planning: Q & A with disabilities advocate In today's climate, it's probably more important to make very clear what kind of medical treatment you do want, NDY research analyst tells the Reno Gazette-Journal, because the default is "non-treatment for incapacitated persons." READ ARTICLE from the Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal. Terri Schiavo Case is Really About Disability Rights Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman gives an overview of disability rights opposition in this opinion article that originally ran in the Aug. 31, 2004 Florida Today newspaper. READ ARTICLE. Why disability rights groups got involved in the Terri Schiavo case Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman provides an overview of the disability rights opposition to the starving and dehydration of Terri Schiavo in this November 14, 2003 speech before Tampa's Tiger Bay Club. READ SPEECH. 'Lifeboat' bioethicists A certain line of thought in bioethics has pretty much taken a "lifeboat" approach, deciding who gets thrown out, says Not Dead Yet founder Diane Coleman in this opening statement in a 9-member panel debate held at Florida State University in Tallahassee on Aug. 30, 2004, the night before oral arguments were heard on the Schiavo case in the Florida Supreme Court. READ STATEMENT. The Stories Around the Story Rus Cooper-Dowda reports for iCanOnline.net on the Oct. 2002 trial on removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. READ ARTICLE. Jack Kevorkian The Meaning of 'Murderer' Cal Montgomery reports on the 1999 murder trial of Jack Kevorkian. READ ARTICLE from the May 1999 Ragged Edge. People with disabilities are entitled to dignity and social justice: A statement in opposition to honoring Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dozens of disability rights organizations and individuals send a statement in protest of Kevorkian's selection as recipient of the 2000 Gleitsman Foundation Citizen Activist Award. READ STATEMENT. | Steven J. Taylor of the Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University writes about the controversy. MORE. Attempted Suicide, Completed Most of those who died at Jack Kevorkian's hand were women who were disabled, not terminally ill, writes Carol Cleigh. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. The All-Too-Familiar Story The majority of people who died at Kevorkian's hands weren't terminally ill, writes Not Dead Yet Research Analyst Stephen Drake -- but you'd never know it by reading media accounts. This 2001 Ragged Edge article looks at Kevorkian news coverage. READ ARTICLE from the March, 2001 Ragged Edge. Peter Singer Unspeakable Conversations Not Dead Yet activist Harriet McBryde Johnson writes in this 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story about her Princeton debate with bioethicist Peter Singer, who "simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was, and to let other parents kill similar babies as they come along and thereby avoid the suffering that comes with lives like mine and satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child." READ ARTICLE reprinted on the racematters.com website. A Defense of Genocide Cal Montgomery analyzes the philosophical bases for bioethicist Peter Singer's stance that disabled infants can be killed at birth. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. Women and assisted suicide Attempted Suicide, Completed Most of those who died at Jack Kevorkian's hand were women who were disabled, not terminally ill, writes Carol Cleigh. READ ARTICLE from Ragged Edge Online. Assisted Suicide: A Feminist Issue At the time of the 1997 Supreme Court assisted suicide cases Glucksberg v. State of Washington and Quill v. Vacco, feminist Barbara Faye Waxman looked at why so many more women than men seem to seek an end to their lives. READ ARTICLE from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities publications Latimer Watch. NOT DEAD YET * 7521 Madison St * Forest Park, IL 60130 Voice/TTY: 708-209-1500 * Fax: 708-209-1735 * TTY: 708-209-1826