Massachusetts's Disability Community Opposes Pro-Death Ballot Measure

Opposition stiffens among the disability community to Massachusetts’s ballot initiative seeking to legalize assisted suicide.

Disability Rights leaders reach out to Elizabeth Warren regarding 'No On 2'

State and national disability rights/social justice advocates are asking Massachusetts United States Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren to meet about Ballot Question 2 and discuss their reasons for strongly opposing this measure to legalize assisted suicide. The disability rights leaders include: John Kelly - Executive Director of Second Thoughts and former Chair of the Boston Disability Advisory Commission, Karen Shneiderman - Senior Advocacy Specialist for Boston Center for Independent Living Inc, Marilyn Golden - Senior Policy Analyst for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Michael Muehe - Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities and Diane Coleman - President of Not Dead Yet.  All are part of the diverse coalition urging Massachusetts voters to say 'No' to Ballot Question 2.

"Ballot question 2 contains a number of problematic issues that raise red flags with progressive voters. These are arguments and perspectives Ms. Warren may not have heard yet, and are asking for the opportunity to meet and brief her and her team," said John Kelly, Executive Director of Second Thoughts and former Chair of the Advisory Board to the Boston Disability Commission. more

Massachusetts: Disability Community Fights Assisted Suicide initiative

The disability community in Massachusetts continues the good fight ahead of the ballot initiative seeking to legalize assisted suicide in that state.

Disabilities group has 'Second Thoughts' on assisted suicide

A group of Massachusetts residents with disabilities opposing legalized assisted suicide are asking Massachusetts voters to have "second thoughts" when they vote on Question 2 in November.

Second Thoughts: People with Disabilities Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide (www.second-thoughts.org) is a Boston based steering committee of disabled people from Massachusetts formed in 2011 to educate and organize the Massachusetts disability community to respond to the ballot initiative. The name "Second Thoughts" emphasizes that rather than offering individual choice, assisted suicide laws create a potentially discriminatory and dangerous practice. more

Canadian Disability Community Pushes Back Against Biased TV Report

I reported last week about the Canadian TV show that presented a massive pro-deather slant in the name of “mercy.” It was pretty biased, and now there’s some pushback coming from the Canadian disability community.

Global’s “Taking Mercy” Portrays People with Disabilities as Suffering and Subhuman; Council of Canadians with Disabilities Seeks Redress

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national human rights organization of people with disabilities, challenges Global, to offset the harm it has done to people with disabilities, by running a follow-up to its “Taking Mercy” media blog.  The follow-up would counter the negative portrayal of people with disabilities presented in “Taking Mercy”, by featuring persons with disabilities who want to live and who see a danger in opening up the debate on euthanasia. “Only good can come from providing an opportunity for a broader, fairer public discourse,” states Rhonda Wiebe, Co-chair CCD Ending of Life Ethics Committee.  CCD will also be launching a formal complaint about Global’s coverage. more

Massachusetts: Disability Community Gears Up For A Fight

Good for the disability community in Massachusetts – they will need all the support that can garner.

Disability Rights Activists Voice Opposition to Massachusetts Assisted Suicide Initiative

Disability rights activists from across Massachusetts will speak today before the Massachusetts legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee in opposition to a ballot question that would legalize assisted suicide. The activists are members of the recently formed group, Second Thoughts: People with Disabilities Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide. The hearing will be at 1 p.m. in room A-2 at the state house. more

Increasing: Calls To Kill The Disabled For Their Organs

We’re seeing this more and more – so-called “experts” and “bioethicists” starting to say it’s OK to kill people for their organs, beginning with the disabled.

Let’s Kill Betty for her Organs

It is written in oh so politically correct language, but it should set off alarm bells. A US government appointed ethicist at the National Institutes of Health just wrote an article in the British Medical Journal proposing the handicapped should be killed for organ donations.

Abstract

What makes an act of killing morally wrong is not that the act causes loss of life or consciousness but rather that the act causes loss of all remaining abilities. This account implies that it is not even pro tanto morally wrong to kill patients who are universally and irreversibly disabled, because they have no abilities to lose. Applied to vital organ transplantation, this account undermines the dead donor rule and shows how current practices are compatible with morality.
Got that? The article explains that since disability is worse than death, so why worry if you kill a theoretical lady named Betty. more

UK: Disability Community Takes A Hit

As much as the disability community deserves support, like any other community, sometimes the actions of some hurt all. From the UK:

If public opinion is turning against the disabled, disability charities have only themselves to blame.

Both major political parties are generally agreed that at least a million people live on state sickness benefits when they are not actually sick or disabled.

This mass abuse of the welfare state began in the 1980s when the decline of heavy industry left large numbers of middle-aged men without jobs and without much enthusiasm for finding new ones. Since then there has been no shortage of new volunteers who prefer not to work and who find it convenient to live on sickness benefits. more