What the Disability Rights Movement Wants

[DemBones DemBones]

What the Disability Rights Movement Wants

Eight things that need to happen to safeguard against non-voluntary euthanasia in the U.S.

MEANINGFUL FEDERAL REVIEW
Congressional action along the lines developed by Senators Harkin and Martinez in the U.S. Senate, providing for federal civil rights review of contested third party decisions to withhold treatment in the absence of an advance directive or personally appointed surrogate.

CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF NON-VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA, ESTABLISHMENT OF SAFEGUARDS
Congressional hearings or other examination of the appropriateness of further federal action to protect people from non-voluntary euthanasia based on the decisions of statutory guardians or health care providers.

EQUAL TIME IN AN OPEN PUBLIC DISCUSSION
An open public discussion: Nothing about us without us- disability rights movement experts should have equal time in media debates with bioethicists like Art Caplan. Media must stop following the right vs. left script given them by the bioethicists decades ago. Accordingly, the disability rights movement's experts should be given the same media airtime as spokespersons for the religious right.

STATE-BY-STATE POLICY REFORM
Funding for state-by-state review of guardianship and health care decisions laws by protection and advocacy systems and other disability rights legal advocates to develop reforms to safeguard against non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia.

PUBLIC EDUCATION BY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Funding for public education about the perspectives of people living with significant disabilities on the difference between end-of-life decisions and decisions to end the lives of disabled people who are not otherwise dying.

PARTIAL MORATORIUM ON DEHYDRATION/STARVATION
A moratorium on the removal of food and water from people diagnosed in "persistent vegetative state" and "minimally conscious state" in the absence of new diagnostic processes discussed in recent medical journal Neurology, or a written advance directive/power of attorney by the person.

OLMSTEAD IMPLEMENTATION, PASSAGE OF MICASSA
Implementation of the rights of people with disabilities to long-term supports in the community under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Olmstead. We call for passage of the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, which would allow people receiving Medicaid funding to have a life in the community instead of being forced into a nursing home.

CONTINUATION OF GOVERNMENT FUNDED HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS
Conservatives who honestly supported efforts to protect the life of Terri Schiavo should work on a bipartisan basis with moderates and liberals to ensure continued appropriate funding of Medicare and Medicaid. Proposed budget cuts threaten to result in a less-public, but very real, increase in the numbers of deaths of older and disabled people, even more prolonged and agonizing than the one experienced by Terri Schiavo, through lack of access to needed healthcare.


Position Paper from Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization opposed to legalizing assisted suicide, euthanasia, and medical discrimination.

Not Dead Yet!

[Traveling_Home]

1. Lovin' Your Posts - Great Stuff!!! - Thanks n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Thanks, I'm on a roll here

even though I'm not in a chair. :D

I should have a chair for going out because walking on hard surfaces is very hard on my joints and exhausting, but I would have to have a power chair or scooter as I would so more damage to my wrists wheeling a regular chair. My rheumatologist has cautioned me about being careful not to further damage my wrists. Sometimes I can't even lift a fork without a lot of pain so you can see the problem.

I can drive when I'm not in too much pain (power steering and automatic transmission, of course) but I'm not sure I could manage driving a van with lift. My husband could, of course, so it would be fine for us going places, but no help if I wanted to go someplace with friends.

I haven't investigated what my insurance would pay but surely they wouldn't pay for a van with lift, or would they? My doctor has already written me at least three prescriptions for a wheelchair so that's not a problem.

[cutlassmama]

3. usually not. A van lift is considered a "convenience" item.