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Disability Advocates File Amicus Brief in Schiavo Case
October 6, 2003 For Immediate Release Contact: Max Lapertosa, 312-253-7000 Diane Coleman, 708-209-1500 c/o Progress CIL, 7521 Madison St. Forest Park, IL 60130 Voice/TTY: 708-209-1500 Fax: 708-209-1735 TTY: 708-209-1826 Today, disability rights advocates weighed in on the legal fight over the life of Terri Schiavo. Ten disability rights groups, a university affiliated policy center, a patients' rights group, and two individuals who have experienced severe brain injury filed an Amicus brief supporting Terri Schiavo's right to food, water and rehabilitation: Not Dead Yet, ADAPT, American Association of People with Disabilities, Center for Self-Determination, Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University, Rev. Russ Cooper-Dowda, Hospice Patients' Alliance, Dr. James Hall, National Council on Independent Living, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered, STASH, World Association of Persons with Disabilities, and World Institute on Disability. These groups are among the nation's leading organizations representing people with disabilities. Most are governed and staffed by a majority of people with disabilities of all types, including people with severe physical and cognitive disabilities. They join with the parents of Theresa Schiavo because the standards upon which Ms. Schiavo's life or death turn may, if defined broadly enough, also be applied to thousands of people with disabilities who, like Ms. Schiavo, cannot articulate their own views and must thus rely on third parties as substitute decision-makers. Max Lapertosa, attorney for the 14 Amicus, says, "A judge's order to terminate the life of a woman with severe disabilities is not a private family matter. Terminating Ms. Schiavo's life support would not be possible without the authority of the courts. This case reflects whether our society and legal system values the lives of people with disabilities equally to those without disabilities." Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group opposed to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, feels this case is of national importance. "Florida's not the only state that has made it easier to end the lives of people with mental retardation and brain damage," says Coleman. "This is happening all over the country. What makes it even scarier is that new evidence keeps emerging that many people labeled as "vegetative" are misdiagnosed. The latest evidence was the subject of an article in the New York Times last week." Coleman was referring to new research that indicates many people believed to be in "persistent vegetative state" show areas of the brain that exhibit near-normal activity when exposed to such things as music and the voices of loved ones. That's exactly what many people have observed in videos of Terri Schiavo. Due to accessibility and the size of this document we have made
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