DREDF Urges CA Governor to Veto Bill Eliminating Safeguards on Physician Assisted Suicide SB 380

September 22, 2021 Senate Bill 380, which would roll back important protections for individuals with disabilities who are considering using an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life. Assisted suicide is not about choice when people with disabilities lack access to appropriate medical care. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed long standing disparities in our health care delivery system as we witnessed disproportionate rates of infection and mortality among Black and Latine Californians, and throughout our senior and disability communities. DREDF supports making available to all Californians ready access to timely rehabilitative, therapeutic, urgent, palliative (pain management), hospice and related health care options other than physician-assisted suicide. [...]...

assisted-suicide-97

assisted-suicide-97

DREDF’s 1997 statement on assisted suicide Why Assisted Suicide Must Not Be Legalized Introduction I. Few Helped, Many Harmed: Disability Prejudice and the Damage to Society A. Legal Alternatives Avoid A Great Harm B. Fear, Bias, and Prejudice against Disability C. A Deadly Mix: Managed Health Care and Assisted Suicide 1. An Ailing System Made Worse 2. Deteriorating Health Care in Oregon 3. The Broad Indirect Impacts on Health Care II. The Failure of Safeguards and the Case of Oregon A. The [...] ...

DREDF Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Itself and Eighteen Other Organizations Opposing Efforts to Establish a Constitutional Right to Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

February 27, 2022 The question of whether a constitutional right to assisted suicide exists must be addressed and understood from the perspective of the class of people who will be most adversely impacted if such a right is found – people with disabilities, whether terminally ill or not. On February 14, 2022, DREDF filed an amicus brief on behalf of itself and eighteen other organizations in Kligler v. Healy to provide such a perspective. Kligler is an appeal before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that seeks to establish a constitutional right to assisted suicide. The nineteen amici are recognized authorities in the field of disability rights who oppose the legalization of assisted suicide. The brief of amici discusses how assisted suicide discriminates against people with disabilities, degrades their perceived value and worth, and puts them at higher risk of...

Lawmakers rush to reintroduce End of Life Options Act, but haste makes bad policy

By: Laura Petrillo, MD (@lpetrillz) Posted August 21, 2015 | in GeriPal The End of Life Options Act, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide, was stalled in the California legislature earlier this summer and seemingly shelved until next year. But in a surprise move, lawmakers introduced a new bill with the same purpose on Tuesday, during a special session on healthcare financing called by Governor [...] ...

A Doctor-Assisted Disaster for Medicine

As a physician in Oregon, I have seen the dire effect of assisted-suicide laws on patients and my profession. By William L. Toffler Aug. 17, 2015 7:11 p.m. ET Since the voters of Oregon narrowly legalized physician-assisted suicide 20 years ago, there has been a profound shift in attitude toward medical care—new fear and secrecy, and a fixation on death. Well over 850 people have taken their lives by ingesting massive overdoses of barbiturates prescribed under the law. Proponents claim the system is working well with no problems. This is not true. As a professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & [...] ...

Commentary: The Case AgainstPhysician-Assisted Suicide: For the Right toEnd-of-Life Care

Commentary: The Case AgainstPhysician-Assisted Suicide: For the Right toEnd-of-Life Care

Psychiatric Times. Vol. 21 No. 2 February 1, 2004 February 1, 2004 Psychiatric Times. Vol. 21 No. 2 Commentary: The Case Against Physician-Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care Herbert Hendin, M.D. Dr. Hendin is professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College and medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He is the author of Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients,  [...] ...