Thanks to the LA Times for sharing Matt’s letter, which strongly opposes assisted suicide laws.
Read his letter to the editor below:
Steve Lopez asks, “Will the option [of assisted suicide] be there for others?”
To plaintiffs in the referenced lawsuit and many in the disability, older adult and BIPOC communities, our question is: With assisted suicide on the books, will it be the only “healthcare” to which we have equal access?
It is a privileged, bourgeois set of experiences that frames this issue as choice rather than civil rights, as if everyone in California has equal access to excellent care.
When it’s easier for someone on Medi-Cal with life-threatening disability to get suicide drugs than a mental health consult, and when University of California health systems won’t serve the majority of people of color due to low Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, the state has effectively created a death funnel for devalued groups.
To answer Lopez’s question: Taking one’s own life isn’t criminalized in California, and the right to refuse care is firmly established. This lawsuit doesn’t argue to change either of those things. We simply stand firm on healthcare equity and against a public policy at odds with it.
You can read the original article in question here and all the letters to the editor here.
Matt Vallière in the Los Angeles Times Thanks to the LA Times for sharing Matt’s letter, which strongly opposes assisted suicide laws. Read his letter to the editor below: Steve Lopez asks, “Will the option [of assisted suicide] be there for others?” To plaintiffs in the referenced lawsuit and many in the disability, older adult
Celebrating 33 Years of the ADA Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On this day, July 26th, 1990, the ADA was signed and enshrined civil rights protections into law for people with disabilities. Today and every ADA anniversary, the Patients’ Rights Action Fund (PRAF) celebrates the
Advocates for Assisted Suicide Begin to Fear the Case in California Proponents of assisted suicide are beginning to write articles and speak up about their worries and opposition to the case filed in California to end assisted suicide. While the initial response to this groundbreaking case was severely delayed, opinion pieces and statements of opposition
