John Kelly's Testimony Opposing Assisted Suicide in Minnesota

There is no way to contain eligibility to a narrow set of people. Especially when thousands of disabled Americans now live with conditions that in some states are seen as “worse than death.” Anorexia nervosa and diabetes can now qualify as terminal conditions. Once death is accepted as a positive outcome of medical care, it inevitably gets offered to more and more people.

The problem for us disabled people is that we are already treated badly in the medical system. As medicine has focused increasingly on patient “quality-of-life” as a barometer of life-worthiness, death has been re-characterized as a benefit to an ill or disabled individual. Most physicians (82%,  a 2020 Harvard study found) view our “quality-of-life” as worse than non-disabled people.

Minnesota Website Update

Minnesota State Capitol

The 2019-2020 Minnesota Legislative Session features three bills seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, as those terms are traditionally defined. The bills are HF 2152, SF 2286 and SF 2487. For more information, see bill histories here, here and here.

On September 11, 2019, there was an informational meeting in the House Committee on Health and Human Services regarding HF 2152. No other activity is indicated. Presumably, there will be similar bills next session.

For information about similar bills in prior years, go to Choice is an Illusion Minnesota.

An Open Letter to Mitchell Hamline School of Law: "Losing Your Freedom Is Like Losing Your Hair"

Mitchell Hamline Panel, 04 27 17

In April, I was honored to be one of four speakers at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. The event was a panel discussion regarding legislation seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in Minnesota.  

I arrived at the event with a legal analysis and other materials addressing problems with the legislation. For example and contrary to backers’ claims, patient voluntariness is not assured. 

I started to hand out my materials. Proponents of the legislation, however, objected and a law student organizer backed them up to prevent distribution.