1996: NOT DEAD YET (NDY) was founded. It is a national grassroots disability rights organization opposing the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. After Jack Kevorkian assisted the suicides of two women with non-terminal disabilities, NDY made news by picketing Kevorkian’s home and conducting a sit-in at the Denver Hemlock Society office.”We don’t need to die to have dignity. We’re not better off dead, and society’s not better off without us. This is not the first time some people have thought otherwise. But now people with disabilities are fighting back. Some would say we’re too late, but we’re not dead yet.”
—Diane Coleman, founder of NDY
2003-2005: 30 disability groups would publicly defend Terri’s life. Many disabled people held vigil outside the Florida hospice where Terri was a patient.
- Demonstrating in her wheelchair with a “Feed Terri” sign in front of the FL hospice where Terri was being killed, Eleanor Smith—a self-described lesbian, liberal and agnostic—told Reuters news service, “At this point I would rather have a right-wing Christian decide my fate than an ACLU member.” (The ACLU was in favor of Terri being starved and dehydrated to death.)
- Disability activists say we must stop using the term “persistent vegetative state.” Too many people with significant disabilities have been called “vegetables.” It is beyond demeaning. It is dehumanizing. Disability groups oppose PAS. Activists point out that it is just as short step from PAS for the terminally ill to PAS for anyone whose life is viewed as “not worth living”:
- Newly disabled people may choose suicide over living with disability.
- People whose disabilities make them burdens on family members or who require costly care may be pressured—subtly or not so subtly—to end their lives.
- Disabled people might choose suicide simply because they don’t believe they have other options.
Bottom line: People with disabilities deserve constitutional protection.
For a person with serious disabilities, the debate should not be about whether or not they are going to “get better” some day. Millions of Americans are disabled, and for millions more, it is just a matter of time.
NONE OF US IS GUARANTEED AN ABLE BODY OR MIND FOR LIFE.
See also “Who is the Patient?”