Not Dead Yet, Press Release

Not Dead Yet the resistance in Black Gothic Lettering

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Seven Disability Groups Watch Oregon v. Ashcroft

Six prominent national disability organizations and one university-based policy center have joined in an amicus brief filed in Oregon by Not Dead Yet, the leading national disability rights organization opposing legalization of assisted suicide. The following organizations joined the brief filed February 20 in federal district court in the matter of Oregon v. Ashcroft:

ADAPT
NationalCouncil on Independent Living
NationalSpinal Cord Injury Assn.
Centerfor Self-Determination
Centeron Human Policy at Syracuse University
DisabilityRights Center

The National Spinal Cord Injury Association, founded in 1948, is the largest civilian organization in the United States dedicated to improving the quality of life of persons with spinal cord injury and disease. The National Council on Independent Living, founded in 1982, is the oldest cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities, representing over 700 organizations andindividuals. ADAPT was formed in 1983 and has a national mission is to establish the civil rights of all individuals to choose to live in their homes and communities, rather than be forced into nursing homes and other institutional settings.

The case in which the brief was filed was initiated by the State of Oregon in response to a U.S. Dept. of Justice ruling that assisted suicide is not a "legitimate medical" use of federally controlled substances, and that it will not exempt Oregon physicians who provide lethal prescriptions under the Oregon assisted suicide law from disciplinary action concerning their licenses to prescribe controlled substances. The State of Oregon has challenged the ruling in federal court, obtained a temporary restraining order against the Dept. of Justice, and the State has now moved for summary judgment.

Not Dead Yet's second amicus brief in the proceeding, 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. The Oregon Reports already demonstrate that the "safeguards" against abuse are not enforced or even documented.

"The safeguards are just windowdressing. 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 ofthe Oregon law," says Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet and co-author of the brief, "and 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. The Oregon law isn't about autonomy. Autonomy means being responsible for your own suicide."

"TheOregon law is really about giving physicians the power to decide whose suicides are justified, and we have enough experience with the health care system toknow that not all doctors can be trusted with our lives," says Ric Burger,an organizer for Oregon's chapter of Not Dead Yet and a board member of national Not Dead Yet.

Not Dead Yet is a national disability rights group based in Forest Park, IL.