Sent January 4, 2000
The Honorable Sam Aanestad
CA State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Assemblymember Aanestad:
On behalf of the California Disability Alliance (CDA), I thank you for opposing the "Death with Dignity Act," AB 1592. CDA agrees with you that this bill must be defeated. We urge you to affirm your opposition to AB 1592 by voting "no" if this bill reaches the Assembly floor in any form during the remainder of this session.
There are many reasons for opposing physician-assisted suicide, but CDA's opposition is based primarily on our conviction that enacting such a proposal is extremely dangerous at this time. People with disabilities, poor people, minorities, people with minimal English skills--any or all of these individuals may feel obligated or pressured to choose an early death rather than seeking treatment to control physical and psychic pain or other symptoms that diminish quality of life.
This is especially true given our present draconian cost-cutting "management" of health care, and even more true for the uninsured or under-insured. Elderly or severely disabled people may be told--and may believe--that treatment is "futile," without ever learning of other options that could lead to a longer life, or at least to one that feels comfortable and worthwhile. We know that doctors often are wrong in assessing both the quality of life and life expectancy for people with disabilities, or even for those with cancer or other life-threatening conditions. This is something to which many CDA members can attest from personal experience. Yet AB 1592 presupposes that the medical community can state with certainty that a life will end within six months or less.
We urge you to work with us to improve the palliative and long-term care options available to people suffering from serious, life-threatening illness or disability, rather than taking the dangerous step of legalizing a new medical "treatment" permitting doctors to help us end our lives. From first-hand experience, disabled CDA members are especially sensitive to the anguish of people in severe pain and/or confronted with loss of bodily functions and independence. Help us end that anguish not with death, but with appropriate and compassionate care.
Very Sincerely Yours,
Jean Nandi, for the members of the California Disability Alliance
A statewide organization of persons with disabilities and their friends and affiliates
cc: Gray Davis, Governor of the State of California
Grantland Johnson, Secretary, Health & Human Services Agency
Assemblymember Dion Aroner, Author of A.B. 1592