Many Vermonters would be stunned to learn that some eighty years ago, our legislature passed a law enabling the sterilization of Vermonters who had been determined to be “undesirables,” people from targeted groups that included Abenakis and French Canadian immigrants. The 1931 sterilization law was designed to reduce the number of people seen as placing demands on public … [Read more...] about Vermont’s New Eugenics Movement
The Horrifying Medical Culture into Which the Vermont Legislature Has Injected Assisted Suicide
Over its years of fighting assisted suicide, True Dignity has become acutely aware that medical care of people with disabilities is fraught with discrimination: there is a dangerous assumption, on the part of able- bodied people with power, that certain types of life are not worth living and should be brought to a quick end. Bill Peace’s article about his hospital experience … [Read more...] about The Horrifying Medical Culture into Which the Vermont Legislature Has Injected Assisted Suicide
A Culture of Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide Means Deaths for Convenience, Not Compassion
The dumbest appeal people make for legalizing assisted suicide is that we put animals down when they are suffering. This constantly comes up in the comments to online articles, and we have also heard it in testimony from people who should know better. Some people do put their pets down out of compassion, but many are euthanized purely for reasons of convenience. As pet … [Read more...] about A Culture of Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide Means Deaths for Convenience, Not Compassion
Accepting Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Dangerously Creates a “Special Class” of Homicide, Almost Never Investigated
Much has been written about how legal assisted suicide and euthanasia (two sides of the same coin under our current US laws) dangerously affect the doctor-patient relationship. The article below, written for True Dignity by disability rights activist W. Carol Cleigh, explores the way legal assisted suicide dangerously affects law enforcement. Read this account of the Jack … [Read more...] about Accepting Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Dangerously Creates a “Special Class” of Homicide, Almost Never Investigated
To Be Honest, Compassion and Choices Should Remove “Choices” from Its Name
There was good news in Canada this week. A court ruled that a woman with dementia’s acceptance of spoon feeding in a nursing home indicates a current desire for nourishment that overrides her advance directive's statement that such feeding not be provided. This is a victory for the right to change one’s mind, even if disabled. Compassion and Choices, the leading national … [Read more...] about To Be Honest, Compassion and Choices Should Remove “Choices” from Its Name