Resolution Opposing the Legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide

Authors:

Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH) - Disability Advocacy Worldwide

Source:

(1997)

WHEREAS, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that assisted suicide is not a constitutional right, but is an issue to be decided by the states; and

WHEREAS, bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide are currently pending before state legislatures; and

WHEREAS, no bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide applies to all citizens equally, but singles out individuals based on their health status in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and

WHEREAS the legalization of physician-assisted suicide give physicians the power to decide who will be given suicide prevention and who will receive suicide assistance and is, therefore, not based on individual choice and autonomy; and

WHEREAS current trends in managed care and health care rationing threaten to diminish the availability of health care and related services needed by people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS people with disabilities and chronic illnesses may be driven to despair as a result of fear of being forced into a nursing home or institution, fear of being a physical or financial burden on their families, lack of information, about independent living option, and weariness from the daily struggle to get their legal needs met; and

WHEREAS, any proposed legal "safeguard" requiring that physician-assisted suicide only be available to terminally ill individuals who voluntarily request it will not protect people with disabilities from abuse; and

WHEREAS, numerous courts have ruled that people with non-terminal disabilities are the same as terminally ill patients in that the usual state interest in preserving life does not apply to them; and

WHEREAS, many people with non-terminal disabilities are currently and repeatedly pressured to sign "do-not-resuscitate" orders and other advance directives calling for withholding and withdrawal of medical treatment; and

WHEREAS, there is no empirical data indicating that current laws concerning advance directives are applied on a nondiscriminatory basis; and

WHEREAS, over a decade of experience with these "safeguards" in the Netherlands demonstrates that significant numbers of people with non-terminal illnesses and disabilities have been involuntarily euthanized; and

WHEREAS enforcement of laws and regulations is unlikely in a social context which devalues people with disabilities as a drain on limited health care resources,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, TASH opposes the legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide.