The following reports originate from a variety of sources, including the Associated Press. We're always on the lookout for news of interest. Send us news and if we use it here we'll send you a `Piss on Pity' button. Use the eMail below.
Assisted suicide fight now moves to the states
The U.S Supreme Court, on June 26, handed down its long-awaited decision on the "right-to die," ruling that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. However, the Court did not rule out the possibility of individual states legalizing physician-assisted suicide, via legislation or referenda.
Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group organized to oppose assisted suicide, "cautiously celebrated" the Court ruling. According to Stephen Drake, an organizer for Not Dead Yet, "the Supreme Court said very clearly that laws banning assisted suicide are constitutional." He cautioned, however, that the Court said nothing "about laws allowing assisted suicide." He added that there were "concurring statements by the other justices that seemed to leave the window open for the Court to look at this again."
"The war is not over," according to attorney Stephen F. Gold, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of Not Dead Yet and American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT). "We've won this battle, but [those in favor of physician-assisted suicide] will try to argue this state by state."
Historian Hugh Gregory Gallagher, who opposes "anyone that would remove my right to suicide," agrees that the fight will now be taken to the states.
"This is the kickoff to the national debate. The court said that the states now have the authority to legislate as they wish, that this is not a constitutional issue, it's a policy issue."
The Court actually rendered two decisions on two separate but related cases þ Washington v. Glucksberg, and Vacco v. Quill -- in which terminally ill patients sued to overturn laws banning assisted suicide in the states of Washington and New York. In both cases, the majority opinions were written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, with concurring opinions by other justices.
In Washington v. Glucksberg, Rehnquist wrote that the state "has an interest in protecting vulnerable groups including the poor, the elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect and mistakes. The court of appeals [which struck down the law against assisted- suicide] dismissed the state's concern that disadvantaged persons might be pressured into physician-assisted suicide as `ludicrous on its face.' We have recognized, however, the real risk of subtle coercion and undue influence in end-of-life situations."
"We have a long ways to go in terms of debating this issue," says Kevin Irvine, an organizer with Not Dead Yet's HIV/Gay/Lesbian Subcommittee.
In the meantime, Gold expects disability rights activists to challenge any attempt to legalize physician-assisted suicide on the state level, on the grounds that this would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by lowering the standard of protection only for people with disabilities.
-- From Fred Pelka
After months of negotiation with ADAPT, Speaker Newt Gingrich introduced into the House of Representatives the Medicaid Community Attendant Services Act of 1997 (CASA). The proposed bill, HR 2020, doesn't provide for complete consumer-controlled community-based services, but it is a credible beginning, says Justice For All, giving thousands a real alternative to incarceration in institutions, nursing homes and back rooms.
CASA has not yet been introduced into the Senate. Justice For All urges everyone to contact members of Congress - House and Senate þ and urge support and swift action on this legislation. While you're at it, also tell President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore.
President Clinton signed the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Highlights: Consideration by IEP team of whether a child needs assistive technology devices and services raised to statutory language; more parent participation in IEP teams; more steps to improve educational results for kids with disabilities; and regular report cards to parents on kids' progress.
At a White House signing in June, Clinton praised the new act, but said we have far to go. "...young people with disabilities still drop out of high school at twice the rate their peers drop out of high school, and into less certain futures. For those who stay in school, lower expectations and exclusion still are far too common. Too many parents still find themselves fighting for educational resources and services that are their children's right and their hope for a brighter future."
Sandra Jensen, whose struggle to get a heart-lung transplant became a nationally publicized disability rights issue, died in May.
Jensen, 36, died of complications from the drugs she was taking to fight rejection of her replacement organs. Her doctor said the complications could occur with anyone who has a transplant. "It had nothing to do with her as a person, or as someone with Down Syndrome." He said Jensen followed her complicated medical regimen beautifully.
Two hospitals had rejected Jensen as a candidate for transplant because of her disability. Finally, after intense pressure from the disability community, Stanford University Medical Center performed the surgery.
Sandra Jensen was a great disability advocate. Her friend, Dr. William Bronston, said "We must keep up the fight. Sandra's death, and her life, must not be wasted."
Amen.
A federal judge said the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's ticket machines are too high and its entrance gates are too narrow to accommodate people in wheelchairs, in violation of the ADA.
The ruling in Oakland, California, could require BART to pay damages to thousands of wheelchair-users, who now need the help of a station agent to buy a ticket and enter the gates, said attorney Larry Paradis of Disability Rights Advocates. But he said a settlement was being negotiated to remedy the violations.
BART spokesman Mike Healy said the transit system plans to install a new wheelchair-accessible ticket machine in each of the 20 stations by mid-1998. But Paradis said the proposed machine has a shield that is too high for people in wheelchairs to see and also is not fully accessible to the blind.
Another issue, described by Paradis as the most important one in the lawsuit, is the condition of BART's elevators and escalators. The suit contends they are out of service so often that the system effectively denies access to the mobility-impaired. Healy said BART is spending millions of dollars to renovate the elevators.
Despite a plea for understanding, a Deland, Florida mother was sentenced to five years in prison for the starvation death of her disabled 14-year-old child.
Kathryn Allen 33, had pleaded no contest to third-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Annie, who had cerebral palsy.
Allen already has spent two years in prison and she will be given credit for time served. She faced up to 15 years in prison.
Her boyfriend, 34-year-old Larry Kuzmovich, also pleaded no contest to third-degree murder and testified against his former girlfriend of two years. He was given three years probation.
"I don't think she deserved what she got," said Kelly Glancy, Allen's sister. "I think she suffered enough like the rest of us."
Allen told Circuit Court Judge McFerrin Smith that she didn't notice that her daughter was wasting away. The girl's weight plummeted from 55 pounds to 28 pounds in the three months before she died.
A judge sentenced a Cincinnati woman to five years in prison for waiting more than 12 hours to get medical help for her disabled, 12-year-old son after he was severely burned in a bathtub of hot water.
"This child endured terrible, terrible suffering," said Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Niehaus as he gave Sharon Richmond the maximum sentence. "This is more than a legal violation. It is a moral violation."
She pleaded guilty earlier to charges of child endangering. Richmond's sentencing came four days after Richard J. Klein, 35, was convicted on charges that he placed Matthew Richmond in a bathtub of 140-degree water as punishment for soiling his pants.
The jury acquitted Klein of a murder charge, but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and child endangering.
The boy's nerve endings and much of his skin were burned off when he was put into the hot water Jan. 1, hospital officials said. He died 12 days later.
The Justice Department says a Texas agency created to help the blind failed to reasonably accommodate its own visually impaired employees.
The Texas Commission for the Blind didn't provide required documents in braille or on audiotape and took too long to get adaptive equipment, according to a Justice Department letter obtained by The Pasadena Citizen.
"The Commission has violated the ADA by discriminating against employees on the basis of their disabilities," Isabelle Katz Pinzler, acting assistant attorney general in the civil rights division, wrote in the letter.
Australians with disabilities took to the streets and chained themselves to the gates of the Prime Minister's official residence in Sydney after the government gutted funding for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission.
As a result of the 43 percent budget cut, the Disability Discrimination Commissioner was eliminated.
After fighting for decades to achieve the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, the body set up to administer and enforce the act was gutted, sparking bitter anger among people with disabilities, said John Moxon, president of the Physical Disability Council of Australia.
They spent 3 years and $3 million testing an infrared system that didn't do the job. So now, Washington DC's subway system is going to get bumpy tiles along the platforms in its busiest stations.
The bumps are designed to warn blind riders that they are near the platform edge. Federal regulators told the Metro to put in rubber strips with bumps six years ago, but Metro officials said it would cost too much and got the okay to test the infrared system.
Now they will spend about $11 million to put in the new bumps.
Coca-Cola has hired a bunch of paraplegic hand-cyclists to sell Coke in the streets of New Delhi. Coke doesn't sell as well as Pepsi in India, so the company is trying new ways to boost sales.
As the Wall Street Journal reported, Coca-Cola thought it could score points for good citizenship and boost sales by hiring disabled workers. New Delhi's Handicapped Welfare Society provides about 25 "retailers" with hand-powered tricycles and Coke decks them out with red Coca-Cola umbrellas and other paraphernalia, including a case of Coca-Cola beverages to start off. Then the sellers are in business.
It beats begging, said one of the new retailers.
But it's tough for Coke. Some of the "retailers" are selling non-Coca-Cola products as well, including Pepsi.
A first-grade student who won his school's fund-raising contest was denied the first prize of being principal for a day because of his disabilities, according to a federal claim filed in Washington state.
The claim alleges the North Kitsap School District discriminated against the physically and mentally disabled 7-year-old.
It contends the boy raised $655 selling flower-seed kits for Breidablik Elementary School. But instead of giving him the honor of lunching with the principal and welcoming his fellow pupils, school officials told his mother that her son "would not understand or enjoy" being principal for a day "because he's in special education," according to the claim. The boy was offered books, and pizza from the school lunchroom.
Lowell K. Dougherty says Florida state fees for disabled parking permits amount to a discriminatory and illegal tax. And a federal agency agrees.
Now, the Pinellas Park man has filed a federal lawsuit to get refunds for all Floridians who have ever paid $15 for the blue parking placards.
After the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration agreed in February that Florida's fee system was discriminatory, the director of the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles issued an order changing the policies.
Christopher Reeve told the Senate Appropriations health and human services subcommittee that he's regained sensation down the length of his spine, and medical advances could put him on his feet within five years.
Reeve asked the panel to support legislation sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would require insurance companies to send 1 percent of premium payments into a fund managed by the National Institutes of Health. The money would finance medical research.
-- Days Inn days out. The Days Inn in Wall, South Dakota agreed to make itself more accessible to guests with disabilities under a settlement reached with the Department of Justice.
Some 28 Days Inns have been built since the ADA and DOJ says they all were impaired ADA-wise. DOJ is whipping them into compliance. The Walls case was the first of five to be filed. The settlement is with the owners, architect and contractor of the facility. Days Inn of America, Inc., and HFS Incorporated refused to join the consent order.
When will these guys learn? Why do they have to be sued to provide access so that we can spend our money with them? Will that cute little sun on the Days Inn sign never enlighten the minds of these recalcitrant people?
-- Friendly's gets friendlier. Friendly's family restaurant chain has agreed in a settlement with DOJ to make it easier for disabled people to eat at its 704 restaurants over the next six years. In the first year, Friendly's will alter the entrances to 93 restaurants to eliminate steps and doorways and vestibules that are too narrow for wheelchairs.
The company also agreed to: Redesign dining areas for wheelchair users and provide paths through them that have detectable warnings and are free of objects like protruding coat hooks that could endanger blind people; Provide accessible parking areas and curb cuts for wheelchairs; Lower counter heights, telephones, mirrors and paper towel dispensers and modify restrooms so some are accessible to people in wheelchairs.
-- Shoney baloney. So this deaf woman walks into a Shoney's restaurant with her service dog. . . "Not so fast," the Shoney folks say, "you can't bring that dog in here!" That's an ADA no-no. Now Shoney's has agreed with DOJ to ensure that its 544 corporate-owned restaurants and 300 franchises will welcome people with service animals.
-- Sign of the times. The Wisconsin State Patrol agreed to provide qualified sign language interpreters when necessary during enforcement situations, ranging from traffic stops to arrests in criminal interrogations. The settlement with DOJ stems from a compliant filed by a deaf man who alleged a state patrolman refused to let him communicate during a traffic stop.
-- Calling 911. In separate agreements, Erie County, New York, and North Charleston County, South Carolina, agreed to provide 911 emergency communication service to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or who have speech impairments.
-- Job bias. A partially deaf paramedic was denied a job because of his disability. As a result, the metro government of Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee agreed with DOJ to change its hiring policies. Under the agreement, Nashville will hire the paramedic (Jeffrey Ola) and make sure that applicants will henceforth be evaluated on their abilities.
Associated Press reports were used compiling this column.