Cathy Ludlum: Assisted suicide does not increase personal choice

Cathy Ludlum, a leader of the disability right group Second Thoughts Connecticut wrote an excellent letter that was published by the Hartford Courant on December 20, 2018.

Cathy Ludlum

Ludlum is responding to an article suggesting that only religious people oppose assisted suicide. Ludlum states: 

There are many reasons to oppose assisted suicide, and most of them have nothing to do with religion.

The repeated defeat of these proposals came about because members of the disability and medical communities approached legislators with practical concerns. These include the likelihood of abuse or coercion, misdiagnosis or wrong diagnosis. There is also clear evidence that wherever assisted suicide becomes law, it gets harder for patients to receive life-saving procedures -- because death will always be the most cost-effective treatment.

Perpetuating the stereotype that most opposition comes from the religious community not only does a disservice to all of us who have spent years fighting assisted suicide. It distorts the issue.

Instead, we should be educating the public about the many ways assisted suicide does not increase personal choice. Quite the contrary.

Second Thoughts Connecticut is a grassroots disability rights organization.