Why do non-disabled people get suicide prevention, while disabled people get suicide assistance?

SUICIDE PREVENTION FOR ALL!

NO ASSISTED SUICIDE!

·  When a bullied adolescent, a victim of gay bashing or a bereaved spouse is suicidal, that person gets suicide prevention services.  When a person with a disability says he wants to die, he is given assisted suicide.

·  What about the right to cry for help?

·  When the law allows assisted suicide, it’s saying that some lives are more worth saving than others.

ASSISTED SUICIDE IS A DISABILITY ISSUE!

·  Assisted suicide and euthanasia are not restricted to people with terminal illness.

·  Nearly every person who requests assisted suicide has a physical, mental or sensory impairment that limits major life activities.

·  Of those who request assisted suicide in Oregon, the majority do so because of issues related to disability, not pain.

ASSISTED SUICIDE IS A RECIPE FOR ABUSE

·  People with disabilities and older people are more than twice as likely as non-disabled people to be financially, emotionally, and physically abused. Assisted suicide will make this problem deadly.

·  When disabled people go to the hospital, they may face pressure to refuse treatment, or denial of urgent care.

·  Safeguards are ineffective.

·  Financial and social pressure often cause people to ask for assisted suicide

·  Tests for “competence” are not designed to detect depression, grief, or other treatable problems that can lead to suicidal feelings.

·  In places where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal, problems may go undetected because sometimes doctors don’t file the required reports.

·  Creating an exception to the assisted suicide ban for a few people poses a serious danger for many more people. (Canadians have reject capital punishment for the possibility that even one person might be wrongfully killed).

CHOICE IS AN ILLUSION

·   Current law gives everyone the right to refuse medical treatment, food and water, even if that causes death.

·   The “choice” to die is an illusion because discrimination and lack of access to palliative care, in-home services and supports limit the quality of life of older and disabled people. These factors create economic and social pressure that can tip the scale.

·   How can you make a free choice to die when you don’t have a free choice in where or how you live?

 People with disabilities don’t need to die to have dignity!

Disability is not a death sentence…Yet!

Fight to live well, not to die!

WE’RE NOT DEAD YET!

Contact: Norm Kunc, 604-366-6263; Dr. Margaret Cottle, 604-813-8665
Amy Hasbrouck, 450-921-3057; 

Toujours Vivant-Not Dead Yet (amy.hasbrouck@tv-ndy.ca)

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (1-877-439-3348, info@epcc.ca)