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A national patients’ rights organization recently joined a federal lawsuit that challenges Colorado’s physician-assisted suicide law, arguing that it unconstitutionally discriminates against disabled individuals by violating federal civil rights laws such as the American Disabilities Act.
The Institute for Patients’ Rights (IPR) stated in an emailed news release that it and several other disability and patient advocacy organizations argue the law targets disabled patients and is applied to individuals not suffering from conditions, such as anorexia or spinal cord injuries.
Other organizations challenging the law include the United Spinal Association, Atlantis ADAPT, and Not Dead Yet. A woman named Mary Gossman, who suffers from anorexia, is also fighting the law. The lawsuit additionally claims that the law violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a federal civil rights law that ensures equal protection for disabled individuals in federally funded programs and activities.
Matt Vallière, executive director of the IPR, said that many disabled patients have the chance for recovery with the correct care but instead are being directed toward assisted suicide.
“Assisted suicide laws like Colorado’s create a separate and unequal system in which people with disabilities are offered death instead of support,” he said in the release. “This lawsuit affirms that every person’s life has value, regardless of age, ability, or diagnosis.”
Ian McIntosh, interim director of Not Dead Yet, pointed out that assisted suicide provides an easy way for discriminatory decisions to be made about disabled individuals.
“The Haves get suicide prevention. The Have Nots — people with disabilities — get suicide assistance,” he stated in the release.
The IPR stated in the release that the lawsuit is an effort “to ensure that all lives are protected and that vulnerable people are not treated as disposable under the law,” calling the law a “eugenic public policy” that does not give human life the dignity it deserves.
CatholicVote previously reported that the IPR is also a plaintiff in a California lawsuit that similarly argues the state’s assisted suicide law discriminates against disabled patients.
