Autonomy | 02.22.02

February 22, 2002

NEW DISABILITY RIGHTS GROUP SUPPORTS OREGON ASSISTED DYING LAW, CONDEMNS KEVORKIAN

"The Attorney General of the United States has no business interfering with the democratically-enacted law of the people of Oregon, that dying people should be allowed to escape their suffering with the help of their physicians," AUTONOMY President Andrew Batavia, said today.

AUTONOMY, Inc. is a new organization launched today by several of the nation's top disability rights advocates representing people with disabilities who wish to exercise choices in all aspects of their lives, including the end of life. Unlike some other disability organizations, AUTONOMY members support the right of terminally ill individuals to physician assistance in hastening death.

The organization will be filing an amicus curiae brief in support of Oregon and other plaintiffs in the case against Attorney General Ashcroft for attempting to nullify the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

Batavia, a professor of law and policy with quadriplegia and former executive director of the National Council on Disability, stresses that the Oregon law is balanced, with substantial safeguards against coercion and other abuse. In presenting the position of the new organization, he clarifies:

"While AUTONOMY supports the right to assisted dying for people with terminal illnesses, we strongly condemn the actions of Jack Kevorkian that led to his conviction. Such actions, without standards or oversight, demonstrate why laws like the Oregon Act are needed. Without such laws, suffering people who wish to hasten death are forced to accept the help of anyone who will provide it, no matter their motives or qualifications. That is not autonomy."

Vice President of AUTONOMY Hugh Gallagher, a renowned writer and historian with post-polio and one the world's foremost experts on the Nazi "Euthanasia" Program elaborates that "People with disabilities know all too well what it is like to lose personal autonomy -- this is what the fight for self-determination, independent living and disability rights is all about. We believe that people with disabilities, who have struggled for many years to control our own lives and bodies, should maintain this decision-making autonomy throughout our lives."