Not Dead Yet, Press Release

Not Dead Yet the resistance in Black Gothic Lettering

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PRESS RELEASE
September 30, 2002
CONTACTS:

DIANE COLEMAN (708) 209-1500 ext. 11
MAX LAPERTOSA (312) 253-7000

Disability Groups File Amicus Brief in Oregon v. Ashcroft

Six prominent national disability organizations and one university-based policy center filed a friend of the court brief today with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Oregon assisted suicide case. Not Dead Yet, the leading national disability rights organization opposing legalization of assisted suicide, filed the brief, which supports the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) appeal of the decision in the lower court. The following organizations joined the brief filed September 30th in the matter of Oregon v. Ashcroft:

ADAPT
National Council on Independent Living
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
Not Dead Yet
Center for Self-Determination
Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University
Disability Rights Center

Not Dead Yet and its co-amici agree with the DOJ position that assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical" use of federally controlled substances, and that it should not exempt Oregon physicians who provide lethal prescriptions under the Oregon assisted suicide law from disciplinary action concerning their licenses to prescribe controlled substances.

Not Dead Yet's amicus brief in the case, joined by the groups listed above, argues that the Oregon assisted suicide law cannot supply a foundation for the "legitimate medical" use for controlled substances.

Max Lapertosa, attorney for Not Dead Yet and the other organizations who filed the brief, said the case turned on whether a state could supercede federal laws that regulate physician- assisted suicide. "What constitutes a 'medical practice' is the same from state to state, and Congress intended the term to be applied uniformily throughout the nation. People with disabilities should not lose their fundamental rights and protections when they cross a state line."

The Oregon Reports already demonstrate that the "safeguards" against abuse are not enforced or even documented. "The safeguards are just window dressing. The lapse of up to 466 days from initial request for assisted suicide to death shows that people with non-terminal disabilities are receiving lethal prescriptions in violation of the Oregon law," says Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet, "The Reports demonstrate that ill and disabled people are requesting suicide for psychological and social reasons that could be addressed without killing the individual, but no one seems to care."