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On Monday July 12, disability advocates filed a friend of the court brief in a case that affects the rights of people with cognitive disabilities across Florida and, potentially, nationwide. The Disability Brief urges the state Supreme Court to reverse the lower court and uphold Terri Schiavo’s right to food, water and rehabilitation. The 17 co-amici are:
Not Dead Yet, ADAPT, The Arc of the United States , ADAPT, Center on Self-Determination, Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University, Disability Rights Center, Freedom Clearinghouse, Hospice Patients’ Alliance, Mouth Magazine, National Council on Independent Living, National Disabled Students Union, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered, Society for Disability Studies, TASH, World Association of Persons with Disabilities, and World Institute on Disability.
These groups are among the nation’s leading civil rights organizations representing people with disabilities. Many are staffed and governed by a majority of people with disabilities of all types, including severe physical and cognitive disabilities, and their families. They led the movement to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws protecting persons with disabilities. They join here to support “Terri’s Bill” because the standards upon which Ms. Schiavo’s life or death turn may, if defined broadly enough, also be applied to thousands of people with disabilities who, like Ms. Schiavo, cannot readily articulate their own views and must rely on third parties as substitute decision-makers. The need for limits on the powers of such decision makers is nowhere more clear that on a question as fundamental as life or death, because the consequences of abuse or misjudgment are both ultimate and irreversible. For this reason, neither a court nor any third party may base a decision on their own view of the affected person’s “quality of life.” Only the person’s own desires may drive this determination.
Max Lapertosa, attorney for the 17 amici, says, “A judge’s order to terminate the life of a woman with severe disabilities is not a private family matter. Terminating Ms. Schiavo’s life support would not be possible without the authority of the courts. This case reflects whether our society and legal system value the lives of people with disabilities equally to those without disabilities.”
Not Dead Yet
7521 Madison St.
Forest Park, IL 60130
708-209-1500