Not Dead Yet

7521 Madison St * Forest Park, IL 60130 * Voice/TTY: 708-209-1500 * Fax: 708-209-1735 * TTY: 708-209-1826

Press Release
December 20, 1996

Contacts: Steve Gold, Esq. (215) 627-7300 Diane Coleman (708) 209-1500

Potential Victims of Assisted Suicide Abuse
File Brief in Pending Supreme Court Case

Two national disability rights organizations strongly oppose the legalization of assisted suicide filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. On January 8, the Court will hear arguments on two assisted suicide cases. Disability rights activists are expected to rally that day in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today), known for its grassroots activism and civil disobedience tactics, and Not Dead Yet, a new organization which launched its efforts in a protest outside Jack Kevorkian's home last June, contend that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide poses an overwhelming threat to the lives of people with disabilities.

In their "friend of the court" brief, ADAPT and Not Dead Yet describe numerous cases in which people with non-terminal disabilities have been granted assistance to die without being provided suicide prevention or necessary health related services. For example, Elizabeth Bouvia, a woman with cerebral palsy, sued to obtain assistance to die after several personal setbacks, including a miscarriage and the breakup of her marriage. "The court, the press and the public are so prejudiced against disabled people that they ignored the factors that might make anyone feel suicidal, and only focused on the disability," says Diane Coleman, co-founder of Not Dead Yet and co-author of the brief. "Since Bouvia's disability was incurable, they wrongly concluded that her desire to die was permanent. This was in 1985, and it took two years for the court to grant her so-called right to die. By then, she didn't go through with the assisted suicide and is alive today. But the case is often cited as a precedent in other cases, to the detriment of other disabled people. The Bouvia case established that society can have a double standard about suicide prevention - one for people with serious health impairments and one for everybody else. It's nothing but blatant disability prejudice and discrimination."

ADAPT and Not Dead Yet describe other cases as well, including that of Kenneth Bergstedt, a 30-year-old ventilator user who feared he would have to go to a nursing home when his father was dying of cancer. Disabled advocates tried to contact him to tell him about in-home service alternatives to nursing homes, but his father would not let them talk to him. His "right to die" was granted by the court, and carried out by his father, before he ever knew his real options.

"Physicians are not trained about the practical aspects of living with a disability," Coleman, a wheelchair user, stated. "They dramatically underestimate disabled people's quality of life compared to our own perceptions."

The brief also argues that no "safeguards" will be sufficient to protect against abuses. The groups point out that approximately three-quarters of Kevorkian's assisted suicides involved non-terminal disabled people, again denying them meaningful suicide prevention. Moreover, according to a governmental report in the Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been decriminalized, involuntary euthanasia of non-terminal disabled people is common, even though the practice is supposed to be confined to terminally ill individuals who voluntarily request it. In the U.S., which has not recognized the basic right to health care, medical decisions are increasingly made by profit-driven managed care providers. In this environment, the potential for abuse is even greater.

For a copy of the brief, turn to Not Dead Yet's web site at http://notdeadyet.org or call the contacts listed above.