Disability Rights Oregon has never to my knowledge received a complaint that a person with disabilities was coerced or being coerced to make use of the Act.
– Bob Joondeph, former executive director, Disability Rights Oregon (DRO)
One of the, probably the most fundamental right that we support as an agency is the right to make your own decisions whenever you’re competent to do so. And that leads us to stand here in support of this bill.
– James Jackson, Disability Rights New Mexico
Facts You Need to Know
- The medical aid-in-dying and disability rights movements share important core values: autonomy, independence and self-determination.
- Medical aid-in-dying laws protect people with disabilities from coercion through strict eligibility requirements and safeguards.
- A person is not qualified for medical aid in dying solely because of advanced age or disability. To be eligible for medical aid in dying, a person must be a mentally competent adult with a terminal illness with six months or less to live.
- No one can get a medical aid-in-dying prescription unless and until at least one qualified healthcare provider and one independent witness confirm that the person requesting it is not being coerced to do so.
- Coercing someone to use medical aid in dying is a felony in all authorized jurisdictions.
- Medical aid in dying is a practice proven by decades of experience in authorized jurisdictions. There has not been a single substantiated case of abuse or coercion — not one. Currently medical aid in dying is authorized in 11 jurisdictions.
- Two out of three people living with a disability support medical aid in dying according to surveys in Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts, Illinois, and Montana.1
- Some of the strongest supporters of medical aid in dying can be found in the disability community, including the organization Us for Autonomy.2
Resources: 1. CandC.link/polling. 2. UsForAutonomy.org/about
