A group of national and Delaware-based disability and patient advocacy organizations joined a lawsuit that asks a federal judge to declare the state’s physician-assisted suicide law unconstitutional and to block its implementation.
The Institute for Patients’ Rights is among the groups that include The Freedom Center for Independent Living, Inc., in Middletown, the Delaware chapter of ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, the National Council on Independent Living and disability advocate Sean Curran.
Matt Valliere, executive director of Institute for Patients’ Rights, said in a news release that the law in Delaware 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.
The suit argues that Delaware’s assisted suicide statute will single out people with disabilities and other vulnerable individuals, placing them at risk of premature death rather than ensuring access to care, support and suicide prevention services.
“This new assisted suicide law in Delaware will create a separate and unequal system in which people with disabilities are offered death instead of support,” said Vallière. “Our lawsuit is asking the courts to stop this practice so Delaware patients with disabilities won’t be prevented from accessing care and supportive services.”
Opponents in Delaware spent years speaking out against the law before it was passed by the state legislature last year and signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer. The Diocese of Wilmington joined numerous other people and organizations in speaking out against assisted suicide.
“As Catholics and people of good will let us not be deceived into thinking that passing a bill that will allow for physician-assisted suicide is simply people who are being merciful in helping to alleviate uncontrollable pain that people are suffering,” Wilmington Bishop William E. Koenig said earlier this year.
“It is very clear from what has been seen in states that have passed similar laws, that allowing physician suicide results in people ending their lives simply, among other reasons, because they are depressed, or see themselves as a burden, or have a disability that limits their mobility or ability to interact with others.”
Daniese McMullin-Powell, a plaintiff in the lawsuit through disabilities advocacy group Delaware ADAPT, is a polio survivor and has used a wheelchair for most of her life.
“For patients with serious disabilities, this law will put us at deadly discrimination from doctors and insurance companies in Delaware to make subjective and speculative judgments based on their perception of our quality of life. With looming Medicaid cuts and high insurance premiums, it already feels like our health care system is a divided into providing for the haves and neglecting the have nots. We do not need to add to its brokenness by adding an element where some patients are steered toward suicide.”
“The act devalues people like me,” Curran said in a news release. He is a Delaware resident who suffered a severe spinal cord injury 36 years ago and is quadriplegic. “I have led a full life despite my disability. The act tells people like me that they should qualify for suicide help, not suicide prevention. I find such discrimination utterly repugnant.”
The suit highlights alarming consequences of the law’s implementation, including its ability to be applied to individuals with non-terminal conditions like anorexia, spinal cord injuries, and other disabilities that may bias health care providers. The legislation will go into effect Jan. 1 or when regulations are finalized, according to Valliere.
