Not Dead Yet

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NDY Takes on Last Acts

(Note: "Last Acts" is an extremely well-funded coalition of "end of life" entities here in the U.S..)

On Thursday, November 7, 2002, eight Not Dead Yet activists, four wheelchair users and four walkies with disabilities, delivered a warning to Last Acts at a Chicago event sponsored by the Midwest Bioethics Center, Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition and other "Rallying Points" project affiliates. The event was a cocktail party book signing for Bill Colby's "Long Good-Bye, the Deaths of Nancy Cruzan," about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that opened the door to medical starvation as a means to kill people with non-terminal disabilities. The message conveyed in a detailed leaflet was "Nothing About Us Without Us."

NDY activists began distributing leaflets at 6 p.m. outside the room as participants arrived at the Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Within two minutes, event organizers attempted to interrupt the leafleting, inviting us to come in and join them, and put our literature on their table for people to pick up. But if we insisted on "disrupting" by distributing the leaflet at the door, they would call security. We declined to eat with people who were celebrating a book about starving a woman to death.

We informed them that we would move down the hall a little way, but continue personally distrbuting leaflets to attendees as they arrived. The cocktail room was at the end of a corridor, and every attendee had to pass by us to get to the presentation. This was probably a distressing occurrence for the organizers on a night that was already a problem for them. It was obvious that the turnout was much lighter than they had hoped. Earlier in the week, they had put out an announcement reducing the fee for the conference the next day. There were *maybe* 60 plastic name tags on the registration desk - there were only about 30 people actually inside for the reading, schmoozing and eating.

Our group dispersed around 7:30 pm, having distributed our leaflets to all who attended. The next step is to get the word out to the national office of Last Acts and their Rallying Points Regional Centers.

Thanks to Progress Center for Independent Living staff and Board members Fred Stark, Mark Karner, Mary Lopez, Larry Biondi, Anne Gunter, and Debbie Toh for joining Steve Drake and Diane Coleman in this first wake up call to Last Acts.

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