Assisted Suicide Laws

There has been a lot of quiet activity around the country around assisted suicide legislation.  In Minnesota this past year, the "Minnesota Compassionate Care Act" was introduced (SF 1880) and given its first hearing in a committee; it is supposed to be the subject of "listening sessions" around the state over the summer.  Similar legislation is being considered (and mostly rejected, so far) in many other states.  Here's a helpful roundup of initiatives (complete with color-coded map) from "Death with Dignity National Center." 

For a vivid description of some of the legislative tactics involved in past attempts to pass such legislation (California in 1999), see this Weekly Standard account of the reaction to an opposition coalition composed of "Disability-rights activists in wheel-chairs marched in solidarity with white medical professionals, alongside African-American clergy and advocates for the poor, next to Latino migrant farm workers and Catholics praying the rosary."

This Monday, a trial began in Dakota County, MN, on charges against Final Exit Network Inc, a Georgia nonprofit that provides assistance to people wanting to commit suicide, and its medical director.  According to this newspaper story about the trial:

When an applicant meets the Final Exit Network’s criteria — which includes being mentally competent and suffering from “intolerable medical circumstances” like cancer or Lou Gehrig’s disease — the network assigns volunteer “Exit Guides” who provide information on ending one’s own life.

The network’s preferred method is helium asphyxiation using a plastic bag as a mask. Often, two Final Exit Network members are present and remove items the person used to take their life.

The article also reports that, so far, attempts to prosecute Final Exit Network activists in Georgia and Arizona have failed;  their director's medical license was revoked in Maryland last year, for allegedly assisting in six suicides. 

If you need any inspiration for speaking up against laws that would legalize the work of groups like Final Exit Network, take a look at this testimony by Stephen Mendelsohn in opposition to the Connecticut bill, and this page from my favorite disability activitist group, Not Dead Yet.  I love the beginning of Mendelsohn's testimony:

Movements are known by their mottoes.  The civil rights movement sang "We Shall Overcome."  In the disability community, we have our own motto: "Nothing About Us Without Us."  We.  Us.  Interdependence.  Community.

The "right-to-die" movement, led by Compassion & Choices, has its motto.  It can be seen on their green stickers, multiple Facebook pages, billboards  and earlier this year in the Connecticut Capitol concourse: "My Life. My Death. My Choice."  Me.  Myself. I.  The difference is revealing.