Received: from tortoise.oise.utoronto.ca (tortoise.oise.utoronto.ca [192.75.177.236]) by literacy (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA18426 for <nifl-alld@literacy.nifl.gov>; Wed, 18 Sep 1996 10:40:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: by tortoise.oise.utoronto.ca (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4 (rsm960617)) for id JAA21935; Wed, 18 Sep 1996 09:58:10 -0400 Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 09:58:05 -0400 (EDT) From: William McQueen <wmcqueen@oise.utoronto.ca> To: "Eileen O'Brien" <dawncan@mortimer.com> cc: William McQueen <wmcqueen@oise.utoronto.ca> Subject: Anti-Kervorkian initiative (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960918095610.17814A-100000@tortoise> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- The deadline has been extended to September 20th. Attachment:__________________________________________________ >From cfrazee@web.net Date: Tue, 17 Sep 96 22:03:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine Frazee <cfrazee@web.net> To: wmcqueen@oise.utoronto.ca Subject: Statement on Kevorkian Bill, Here is the material on the current anti-Kevorkian initiative. It was posted on EASI.... The following are two messages I received this weekend from Paul Longmore at San Francisco State University. Please forward it in any format to everyone you know who might want to "sign" it! Professor Longmore's EMail address is 'longmore@sfsu.edu'. The text of the first message follows: >It is long past time for the disability community to respond to Jack >Kevorkian's lethal assaults on our people. I propose to disseminate the >following statement nationwide, perhaps in a full-page ad in the New York >Times. If you want to sign it, please e-mail me your name and how you >wish to be identified. Also, please forward or circulate the statement, >and urge other members of our community to endorse it. The media are only >impressed by numbers. Please get as many people to sign as you can. >Respond by Thursday, September 12th. NOTE THAT DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 20! > DISABILITY COMMUNITY LEADERS DENOUNCE JACK KEVORKIAN > > Yesterday Jack Kevorkian assisted the suicide of a disabled woman. >At least half of the people whose suicides he has abetted have been >disabled. As leaders in the disability community, we are outraged that >Michigan authorities allow his killing spree to go on. We are incensed >that his repeated declarations of contempt for the lives of our people >have been ignored. > > Kevorkian has advocated assisted suicide for disabled people all >along. A March 1990 Detroit Free Press Magazine story announced: >"Oppressed by a fatal disease, a severe handicap, a crippling deformity? >....Show him proper, compelling medical evidence that you should die, and >Dr. Jack Kevorkian will help you kill yourself, free of charge." In a >February 1992 medical journal article, he proposed euthanasia centers, not >only for terminally-ill persons, but for those with chronic conditions >too. > > He also advocates an "auction market for available organs" to be >removed from "subjects" "hopelessly crippled by arthritis or >malformations." The proceeds from sale of euthanized disabled persons' >organs could partly go to family members whose financial burdens would be >relieved and "their standard of living enhanced." > > Kevorkian not only views disabled people as having worthless and >burdensome lives, he sees us as a drain on society. He told a Michigan >Court in August 1990: "The voluntary self-elimination of individual and >(sic) mortally diseased and crippled lives taken collectively can only >enhance the preservation of public health and welfare." > > Though Kevorkian claims to support individual autonomy, he would give >doctors power to decide that people with disabilities would be better off >dead. Time Magazine asked him, "How do you decide whom to help? Does the >patient have to suffer from a life-threatening illness?" "No, of course >not," replied Kevorkian. "And it doesn't have to be painful, as with >quadriplegia. But your life quality has to be nil." "And who decides >that?" asked Time. "That's up to physicians," said Kevorkian, "and nobody >can gainsay what doctors say. It all boils down to the integrity of the >doctors." Many people with disabilities have had doctors dismiss their >"quality of life" as "nil" and recommend withholding medical treatment to >cause their deaths. Kevorkian's plan presents an even more serious threat >to disabled people. > > Disabled people who opt for suicide often do not to receive >appropriate psychological evaluation or crisis intervention. There is an >automatic assumption that they want to die because of their disabilities >and that this is a rational choice. Other factors in their situation are >ignored. > > David Rivlin, quadriplegic from a spinal-cord injury and breathing on >a ventilator, "chose" to die. He attended Oakland University, in >Michigan, aiming to become a psychologist or a college teacher. And he >struggled to live in his own apartment. But "independent living" proved >impossible because the state of Michigan granted him less than $300 a >month to hire aides. Unable to afford adequate help, he kept getting sick >and having to enter nursing homes. The state paid the nursing homes $230 >a day. > > At first, Rivlin clung to the hope he might escape the nursing home. >After three years, he concluded he would never get out and decided he >would rather be dead. So he got a court order authorizing a doctor to >sedate him and disconnect his ventilator. > > Days before Rivlin died, a reporter asked him what he thought about >society's view of disabled people. "It sucks," said Rivlin. >"Transportation, attitudes, financial help, it's all bad." > > Jack Kevorkian visited David Rivlin, later describing him as "having >to be turned and fed and everything done for him. Highly intelligent man, >who had decided that his life now had no meaning and no need to go >on....After that case, I knew we had to have a device to help people like >Mr. Rivlin, and that's when I started making it" -- his notorious suicide >machine. > > Jack Kevorkian viewed David Rivlin through the prism of ignorance and >prejudice. He disregarded the social factors that cause some people with >disabilities to decide that their lives have "no meaning" and are >unendurable: public policies that force them into nursing homes, >inadequate medical and particularly pain-management treatment, denial of >appropriate psychological supports, discrimination in obtaining health >insurance, resulting financial distress, the attitude that they burden >their families and society, and the deep prejudice that their lives are >worthless. > > We urge public attention to the real reasons some people with >disabilities choose suicide. We call upon the news media to report >Kevorkian's bigotted opinions of disabled people. We demand that Michigan >authorities stop him from abetting the suicides of people with >disabilities. > > Jack Kevorkian is no folk hero. He is a contemptible enemy of people >with disabilities, and we denounce him. The second message follows. It is an update directly from Professor Longmore The response to the proposed statement about Jack Kevorkian has been overwhelming. I have received two hundred email messages. They have come from every part of the U.S., as well as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany; from people with every sort of disability; from family members, friends, advocates and professionals without disabilities; people in the community, in agencies and organizations, in academia, and in government. So many want to endorse this statement that the deadline will be extended until next Friday, September 20th. Also, because many people in our community do not have email, there will be another way to respond. Please disseminate the statement and tell the recipients that they can fax a response to 630-920-0928. It is important that every endorser provide indentifying information. If we list only names, we will be accused of having made them up. Many of you have already sent such information. If you have not, please do so as soon as possible. And please explain to anyone who wants to endorse the statement that they should provide at least some of the following information: occupation, title, affiliation, town, disability status or relationship to people with disabilities. In whatever form this statement is finally issued, it will explain that the affiliations listed after endorsers names (e.g. agency, company, university) are only for purposes of identification and do not imply endorsement by that institution. It would be particularly useful if those who have disabilities would identify them specifically. The common stereotype views us as incompetent, incapable of defending our rights and interests, dependent on people who are not disabled to speak for us. That prejudice has contributed to public opinion about Kevorkian. We must claim the authority to define the issues facing people with disabilities. The names of you who have responded do not appear at the top of this message (unless I screwed up the email commands), because some of you have asked for confidentiality regarding your email addresses. But I can tell you that as one reads down the growing list of names and self-descriptions (it now covers seven pages), we collectively are impressive, powerful. Some of you describe yourself as "proud" to be disabled or "proud" to be connected to someone who is disabled. This has become more than a statement about Jack Kevorkian and the prejudice he espouses. It is a declaration of pride, of disability pride. I want to make clear that I do not regard this as my statement or my show. I tried to write something that expresses what I have heard many disabled people say, and then send it floating out into cyberspace to see who might want to sign it. Nor can I take credit for the response. Many of you have energetically disseminated the statement far and wide, generating the endorsements. About all I have done is to read and copy email addresses. Some of you I know personally. Most of you I have never met. All of you make me proud to be a disabled person. Paul Longmore
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