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HIGHLIGHT PIECE OF THE WEEK |
Young Woman With Mental Health Disabilities Gains Access to Assisted Suicide Drugs |
Eileen Mihich's life was marked by deep suffering from a young age. She endured abuse, neglect, and trauma that left her vulnerable and struggling with serious mental illness. She needed compassion, care, and protection. Instead, she was able to obtain lethal drugs under Washington’s “Death with Dignity” law — a law with supposedly strong safeguards. Eileen did not qualify for PAS medications for multiple reasons, and yet was found dead in a hotel room with an empty bottle of lethal medication by her side. Eileen’s death serves as a stark warning about who is truly put at risk when the state authorizes doctors to prescribe drugs intended to end lives.
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| Want to help end assisted suicide?
Two generous donors have committed to matching all new and increased giving, dollar for dollar... UP TO $1 MILLION
Until the end of the year, your support goes twice as far to protect human dignity, expand access to real care, and help us with our litigation strategy to get to the Supreme Court and ensure that assisted suicide ends in the United States! Click below to donate today! |
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I Was Offered Death When I Needed Care |
Melissa Ortiz, disability advocate, I strongly believe my disability factored into the offer of lethal drugs, as I, in real time, faced the very fears of disability patients that their lives are not valued and therefore expendable. I worry deeply about others who, at a vulnerable moment, lacking the capability to decide due to illness, and without support, would end their lives prematurely. |
| Dr. Dugdale Fights Against Assisted Suicide in Recent Debate |
Dr. Lydia Dugdale, physician, medical ethicist, and professor of medicine at Columbia University, debates an assisted suicide supporter on her position that, "Legalizing this practice of physician-assisted suicide risks undermining the responsibilities of governments, medical systems, and families to care for the mentally ill, the poor, and the physically disabled." |
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Assisted Suicide Threatens People with Disabilities |
Bria Sandford Ramos, disability rights activist, writes, "I oppose assisted suicide because of my disabled brother, Duncan. The language my friends use to justify their support for the bill—an interest in autonomy to end one’s life when it becomes too unproductive or inconvenient—could equally be used to say his life isn’t worth living." |
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"End Assisted Suicide" is the group of plaintiffs suing the states of California, Colorado, and Delaware to overturn the Assisted Suicide law there. Our 501(c)(3) sister organization, the Institute for Patients' Rights, has joined this ground-breaking lawsuit as a plaintiff. |
We’ve joined a federal lawsuit in Delaware with a coalition of national and Delaware-based disability and patient advocacy organizations - The Freedom Center for Independent Living, the National Council on Independent Living, the Delaware chapter of ADAPT, United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet, the Institute for Patients’ Rights, and Sean Curran, a disability advocate.
The plaintiffs argue the Delaware assisted suicide law violates core protections under the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. |
If you’re in crisis, there are options available to help you cope. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any time to connect with a trained crisis counselor. For confidential support available 24/7 for everyone in the U.S., call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. |
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The Patients' Rights Action Fund (PRAF) is a 501(c)(4) and a leading national, non-partisan single-issue organization that protects the rights of patients, people with disabilities, older adults, and other historically underrepresented groups from deadly harm and discrimination inherent in assisted suicide laws.
The Institute for Patients' Rights (IPR) is a 501(c)(3) founded to conduct research, educates the public, and work to expand and implement tools of empowerment for older adults, people with disabilities, marginalized persons, and their families to combat policies and medical practices that devalue some people’s lives, putting them at great risk of deadly harm, as with assisted suicide laws. |
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