Message: 4
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 14:48:19 EDT
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: For Immediate Release: U.S. Disability Rights Activists Applaud UN Report
For Immediate Release
July 27, 2001
Contact: Diane Coleman, Stephen Drake, Carol Cleigh (708)209-1500
U.S. Disability Activists Applaud UN Human Rights Committee
Report's Statement of Concern About Euthanasia Practices
Not Dead Yet, a U.S. disability rights group opposed to
legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, voiced its
support of the draft report of the UN Human Rights Committee
issued Thursday.
The draft report issued by the committee yesterday expressed
carefully-worded concern over the legalization of euthanasia in
the Netherlands and its potential impact. The committee report
said "such a practice may lead to routinisation and insensitivity
to the strict application of the requirements." The committee
also expressed skepticism over the very few negative assessments
made in over 2000 cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the
Netherlands. The report states: "The large numbers involved raise
doubts whether the present system is being used in extreme
cases in which all the substantive conditions are scrupulously
maintained."
"The UN Human Rights Commission is finally addressing what
has been public knowledge for years. The Dutch experience with
euthanasia is best described as one of increasing carelessness
and callousness over the years. The strict guidelines under which
euthanasia was decriminalized for many years have been widely
ignored, according to published reports in the Netherlands,"
said Stephen Drake, research analyst. "In spite of admitted
widespread abuses, only a handful of doctors have even been
prosecuted for violating guidelines. Out of that group, the ones
who have been convicted of violating Dutch protocols have
received suspended sentences and other legal equivalents
of a light slap on the wrist."
The last such case occurred earlier this year. It involved a
physician who killed his elderly patient without discussing it
with her and without consulting other doctors. The court
found him guilty of murder and violating guidelines, but
refused to impose a sentence.
NDY President Diane Coleman is cautiously supportive of
the report. "Euthanasia in Holland is routinised and widely
unreported already. Nonterminal disabled adults and infants
are euthanized routinely in Holland, often without consent."
Not Dead Yet sees disturbing parallels between the history of
the Dutch "toleration" of euthanasia and the current spin being
put on data coming from Oregon, which is the only state in the
U.S. where assisted suicide is legal.
In addition to Not Dead Yet, ten other national U.S. disability rights
organizations have taken formal positions opposing legalization
of assisted suicide and euthanasia. They are: American Disabled
for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), Association of Rural
Independent Living (APRIL), Disability Rights and Education
Fund (DREDF), Justice For All, National Council on Disability,
National Spinal Cord Injury Association, TASH (A civil rights group
for, and of, people with developmental disabilities), World
Association of Persons with Disabilities, and World Institute
on Disability.
---------end------------
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|
