Not Dead Yet, Press Release

Not Dead Yet the resistance in Black Gothic Lettering

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

Disability Groups Await Assisted Suicide Ruling

U.S.District Court Judge Jones is expected to release his decision on Oregon v.Ashcroft Wednesday morning, April 17.

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

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

The current case 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 challenged the ruling in federal court, obtained a temporary restraining order against the Dept. of Justice, and the State 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 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 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."

Ellie Jenny, an organizer for Oregon's Not Dead Yet chapter, agrees. "When someone asks for assisted suicide because they feel like a burden, that means they're not getting the right support services, and that's not choice," she says.

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