Assisted suicide lobby works to undermine disability rights opposition to assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A May 2022 powerpoint presentation by the Statewide Campaigns Director with Dying With Dignity outlines a strategy for assisted suicide campaigners on how to undermine opposition to assisted suicide by disability rights organizations. 

Among the key strategies is the attempt by assisted suicide groups to undermine disability rights groups by claiming that they are promoting a religion centered agenda rather than being a legitimate disability rights organization.

After undermining the disability rights groups that oppose assisted suicide, the second goal is to work with the statewide disability rights groups that focus on protection and advocacy and groups that provide client assistance programs by gaining their confidence while undermining the disability rights groups that oppose assisted suicide.

The assisted suicide lobby successfully convinced a key disability rights groups in New Mexico to take a neutral stand on assisted suicide which undermined the disability rights opposition to assisted suicide and helped lead to the legalization of assisted suicide in New Mexico.

The assisted suicide lobby recognizes that disablity rights groups have been a central factor in preventing the legalization of assisted suicide in many states. In response the Dying With Dignity powerpoint outlines how the assisted suicide lobby plans to undermine disability rights groups that oppose assisted suicide. The powerpoint also provides a warning of how the death lobby plans to attack disability rights groups with lies in order to undermine their opposition to assisted suicide.

On April 25, 2023, a court case was launched to declare the California assisted suicide law unlawful and unconstitutional.

The United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet, Institute for Patients’ Rights, Communities Actively Living Independent and Free, Lonnie VanHook, and Ingrid Tischer launched a lawsuit in California to strike down the California assisted suicide law with the goal of the case going to the United States Supreme Court to strike down assisted laws throughout the US. (Link to the complaint).

The Californial court case effectively expresses how assisted suicide laws undermine protections and equality for people with disabilities in America and clarifies why disability rights groups must remain united in opposition to assisted suicide.