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Disability Facts |  |
Download this Information as a PDF Compassionate Choice is Completely in Line with the Goals of the Independent Living Movement Key Disability Rights Leaders Support Compassionate Choices for the Terminally Ill “AB 374 isn't about disability rights, it's about personal choice. Something the disability community is unanimously in favor of when it comes to living. “As a person with a lifelong disability who is actively engaged personally and professionally in a myriad of Independent Living Movement issues, AB 374 is about many things that are vitally important to Americans, but first and last, it is about dignity. “Isn't making a well-controlled choice to die a few days or weeks sooner from a terminal illness, in a time and manner of one's own choosing, a choice made by the living? How do we dare to take away final choices from the terminally ill, based on our own fears of being left out of the mainstream? “Warnings of a slippery slope toward outright euthanasia are another ‘wolf cry’ by opponents pushing their agendas into other peoples’ private lives. Oregon’s experience proves the slope wasn’t slippery at all, but rather well conceived and well-managed.” “Pass AB 374 so we can all approach our deaths with more choices, more control and more dignity.” —Disability Rights Advocate Alan Toy “I support the bill because of the safeguards.” —Disability Rights Advocate Daniel Barnes “I know that rank and file people with disabilities just like those without disabilities want choices and options in a fair, equitable playing field.” Disability Rights Advocate F. Burns Vick, Jr., J.D. “Persons with disabilities are far more vulnerable in states where the transparency of the Oregon law does not exist.” Paul Spiers, AUTONOMY Board President Wouldn’t people with disabilities be more likely to choose assisted dying under this law? No. Experience from Oregon proves this. All of the people who have chosen to invoke Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act have been in the last stages of a terminal illness like cancer, AIDS, or ALS. Disability has not been a factor. But doesn’t this bill create the possibility of assisted dying by disabled people who could otherwise live? Absolutely not! Only terminally ill mentally competent adults, disabled or not, would be able to invoke the law. No one who is not terminally ill could choose aid in dying under this act. Disability does not qualify anyone for this choice. Don’t disabled people oppose this law because they’re afraid of it? Opinion Polls show that people with disabilities have the same desire for autonomy, freedom, and self-control at the end of their lives that everyone else has. But aren’t disabled people more likely to choose assisted dying because they’re vulnerable? People with disabilities value life and power and freedom as much, maybe more, than everyone else. In any case, only those diagnosed with less than six months to live are eligible to make this choice. How many people with disabilities who were not terminally ill have died invoking Oregon’s law? Not a single one. Opponents of Compassionate Choices say this could lead to a “slippery slope” making it more acceptable to let disabled people die. That has not happened at all in Oregon. And this bill has even more safeguards to prevent any possibility of that. Won’t greedy HMO’s and uncaring doctors use this as a way to make profits, by having disabled consumers choose assisted dying rather than receive expensive care? HMO’s and doctors would have no power whatsoever to do anything except respect their patients’ wishes. The choice is entirely the individual’s. The safeguards build into AB 374 ensure that nothing like that can happen. |
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