Showing posts with label Not Dead Yet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Not Dead Yet. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Assisted Suicide :: "NO DISASSEMBLE..!"

Butterfly In Hand

Very tired tonight.. Very, very tired.. Been up since like noon (day before) yesterday..

Seriously. :grimace:

Durn near could call it "Happy", though and in spite, marveling at the intricacies rapidly weaving their way into my Life the last few weeks, thank you in LARGE part to that MATS themselves handpicked my "bus stop" in downtown Jasper a few short weeks ago.. Their Choice of what would help them help me mitigate this Life's routine incidentally generated an ever intensifying chain of events one Heart couldn't hope to imagine come true..

New friends, at the very least..

New friends who "get it", to boot..

Then comes the Sad..

War... Gas gouging... Precious family homes being ripped away...

And, yet again, that seemingly never-ending devil monster, assisted suicide...

Accredited to Hillary Clinton: "I commend Oregon on this count, as well, because whether I agree with it or not or think it’s a good idea or not, the fact that Oregon is breaking new ground and providing valuable information as to what does and doesn’t work when it comes to end-of-life questions, I think, is very beneficial."

So, in other words, reading into her given arrangement of 26 letters chosen just for that audience, she supports a statewide scientific medical experiment that will ultimately serve as a legalized whitewash of all community health care services rendered reprehensibly..

Whoops.. No, wait.. That was a whitewater of all community health care services rendered non-accountably, wasn't it.. :wink:

Oy, goodness, Senator Clinton, most respectfully, what were you thinking that day you said that..?

My guess is that no one knows any better than you as a lawyer-type person that endorsing, pursuing, lobbying, and implementing just one new Law begets.......

Precedence..

You know.. That nasty, minor little detail of...

Precedence..?

Precedence for some to say, "You legalized us assisting in murdering these people.. Here's a little sumpin, sumpin for your troubles.. Care to let us quietly take out a few million more..?"

Yup... Precedence.

An unforgiving...

Irreversible...

Slippery Slope.....

For sure.

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

Resources: Butterfly In Hand image courtesy of: copyright-free-pictures.org.uk..

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Dear Dr. Jack Kevorkian aka Dr. Uncouth :: Cripples..?

If the reported stories are actually indeed true and you did indeed use some variant of the word "cripple" under any circumstances to address my Not Dead Yet friends, you are, for lack of a better word this moment, a racist.. Your use of that word at all, let alone under the specific circumstances in which you did is inexcusable.. It is no different than had you publicly uttered a racial epithet, an ethnic slur..

As far as these fingertips are concerned, you, my dear sir, are guilty of a public hate crime.. Ok, so you appear at least recorded as most definitely guilty of public hate speech.. Regardless of the semantics, as far as these fingertips are additionally concerned, those who financially endow you under any circumstances are, by association, likewise guilty of supporting the same.

May the Peace be with you..

Updated 4:05am Dawned on me as fast as I posted yet again, ableism was likely the term that would best befit your behavior..

Sexism.. Racism.. Ableism..

Friday, June 8, 2007

Not Dead Yet :: Testimony to House of Representatives on Assisted Suicide..

A must read from Not Dead Yet if you truly believe in hearing all sides of the story: April 29, 1996, Testimony Before the Constitution Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives..

Just spent the better part of several hours writing and rewriting thoughts on, among other things, a potential scientific study regarding the whoosy-whats-its of how people are swaying on the topic of assisted suicide slash euthanasia.. Then it crossed my Mind, "Need to check the Internet to see what may have been done recently.." Duh.

Seconds into the search, there's Georgia Right To Life front and center with a nice long page from this side of the assisted suicide slash euthanasia debate.. Really like the following from them (that may also be from elsewhere, btw):

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES?

What would this thinking say about our attitude as a society? On the one hand, we tell those who have neither terminal illness nor a disability, "You say you want to be killed, but what you really need is counseling and assistance." On the other hand, we tell those with disabilities, "We understand why you want to be killed, and we'll let a doctor kill you"? It would certainly not mean that we were respecting the "choice" of a person with the disability. Instead, we would be discriminatorily denying suicide counseling on the basis of disability. We would be saying to the non-disabled person, "We care too much about you to let you throw you life away." To the person with the disability we would be saying, "We agree that life with a disability is not worth living."

Most people with disabilities will tell you that it is not so much their physical or mental impairment itself that makes their lives difficult, as it is the conduct of the non-disabled majority toward them. Denial of access, discrimination in employment, and an attitude of aversion or pity instead of respect are what make life intolerable. True respect for the rights of people with disabilities would dictate action to remove those obstacles, not "help" in committing suicide.

A large part of what I was working through in my original post went something very much like the following from the testimony in front of the House of Representatives:

But, particularly in the absence of a constitutional right to physician care, a right to physician-assisted suicide is not the answer. While a few may have all the options that money can buy and choose the final solution with complete understanding and freedom, the majority who are offered this option are people that society is all too ready to abandon as too costly and unproductive- -people who can only depend on the protection of the law. The depth and breadth of this abandonment is only understood by those who live it everyday.

Testimony talking points that you must PLEASE keep in mind as this continues to pick up speed over the next little while:

  1. People with disabilities do not have adequate protection from either the courts or disability organizations.
  2. People with disabilities and incurable chronic diseases have experienced a long history of persecution and genocide.
  3. Assisted suicide will not remain confined to the imminently dying.
  4. Assisted suicide enthusiasts have reinforced public prejudice and fear regarding disability.
  5. As long as people with disabilities are disenfranchised and treated as unwelcome and costly burdens on society, assisted suicide is forced "choice."
  6. The great majority of problems that lead people with disabilities, chronic conditions, and even terminal illnesses to seek hastened deaths are remediable through other means, such as assisted independent living outside of nursing homes, sophisticated pain management, death counseling for individuals and families, augmentative communication technology, hospice support, etc.
  7. Physicians must not be given the power to decide who lives and who is escorted to death.
  8. The 2nd Circuit Court decision illustrates the logic that propels us down the slippery slope to endangerment.
  9. In fact, people with disabilities have already been endangered by relaxation of laws and policies protecting their lives.
  10. Many proponents of physician-assisted suicide have expressed the belief that adequate safeguards can be adopted to protect vulnerable people from various forms of pressure and abuse if the practice is legalized in conformance with the 2nd and 9th Circuit court opinions.
  11. Assisted suicide is discriminatory. As a policy, it singles out ill and disabled people as fitting subjects for dying.
  12. Assisted suicide is classist. Author's Note: I said big, bad words just now as I saw this one.. This was exactly where I was coming from in my two-hours of work earlier.. EXACTLY.. Had to do with a quick one-line comment I left over at The Liberty Papers.. Calling the similarities "eery" is putting it mildly.
  13. There is virtually no research on suicide and suicidal wishes in people with disabilities.
  14. People with disabilities and incurable illnesses deserve the same social supports and commitment to suicide intervention as any other citizen.
  15. Women with disabilities will be particularly endangered by the legalization of assisted suicide.
  16. People with disabilities in our country are increasingly caught in a perilous bind.

There is substantial elaboration regarding each talking point, again, there at Not Dead Yet's website..

Going out on this note, which is what brought me to the above (and that I haven't tracked back to the original just yet):

Specifically, according to a Dutch governmental report in 1990, 5,941 persons were given lethal injections without consent. Of those, 1,474 were fully competent, according to their physicians.

Sweet, peaceful dreams..

Friday, January 12, 2007

FRIDA: "Speak Out About the Ashley Treatment"..

Ok, thanks to personal health, this one is a couple days late in finding its way out of my inbox, BUT.. No time like the Present, as they say, for letting those involved in Ashley X's treatment know what you think.. A HUGE thank you to the originators for posting email addresses for those of us who don't frequent the phone very often..

Resource for this information was a member post over at the Disability Convention Yahoo! group..

PS.. My view on the same..?

  • That a human being's, that a person's "self" was taken from them..
  • That this will set a very sad, very sick precedent..
  • That Ashley's parents may indeed have believed that what they did was "the right thing to do under the circumstances"..
  • That the Lives of that many more of my friends with disabilities may now be seen as in jeopardy..
  • That Life itself seems to just keep losing value in the eyes of so many people.. What gives them the right..?

ACTION ALERT: Speak Out About the Ashley Treatment
Fax, E-mail, and Phone Campaign

Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA), with the support of Chicago ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today), the national ADAPT community and Not Dead Yet (NDY), invites you to speak out about the Ashley Treatment.

Our Targets: Seattle Childrens Hospital staff involved in the case of nine-year-old Ashleys growth attenuation and sterilization, as well as Melinda Gates, chair of the Seattle Childrens Hospital fundraising committee and Susan Macek, Director of Communications for Seattle Childrens Hospital.

Why: To oppose their permission of what is now known as the Ashley Treatment, and to condemn further permission of such treatments for children with disabilities whose lives are not otherwise at risk.

When: Tuesday, January 9, 2007, starting at 9 am in your time zone.

Contact Info:

Dr. Douglas Diekema, 206-987-2380
B-5520 Emergency Medicine
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Fax: (206) 987-3836
E-mail: Douglas.diekema@seattlechildrens.org.

Dr. Daniel F. Gunther
Phone: (206) 987-2380
M1-3 Endocrinology
4800 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Fax: (206) 987-3836
E-mail: Dan.gunther@seattlechildrens.org.

Melinda Gates
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone: (206) 709-3100
Fax: (206) 709-3252
Email: info@gatesfoundation.org.

Susan Macek
Director of Communications, Seattle Childrens Hospital
Phone: (206) 987-5201
Pager: (206) 469-6310
E-mail: susan.macek@seattlechildrens.org.

Ashley is a nine-year-old with a severe cognitive disability. In order to keep her small and more easily cared for by her family, doctors at Seattle Childrens Hospital are having her undergo hormone therapy to stunt her growth. In addition, they surgically removed her breast buds, uterus and appendix. The Ashley Treatment, as her parents call it, is a medical fix to serious social problems we face in America today. The first of these problems is a lack of quality home-based services for people with disabilities. The second is the social attitude that people with disabilities are less than human and therefore fair game for experimentation. The third is a lack of understanding of disability vs. illness: as Joe Hall of South Carolina has stated, "When I was born my parents knew that I would never walk, but they would have never thought it would be acceptable to cut my legs off."

To review Ashleys parents blog, please see: ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com.

To review one of the original articles as reported by the BBC, please see: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6229799.stm.

We need to let the Seattle Childrens Hospital and its fundraising Chairperson know that the Ashley Treatment has not gone unnoticed by those of us who live with disabilities.

For more information, AND TO KEEP US POSTED OF YOUR ASHLEY TREATMENT ACTIVITIES, please call Sharon Lamp at (847) 803-3258 or e-mail Amber Smock at ambity@aol.com.

(Original) Source: Feminist Response In Disability Activism (FRIDA)

Crossposted at: Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar.