A collage of fifteen photos of people who are different races and some with disabilities.

Patients Rights Action Fund

Personal Stories

Assisted suicide affects many kinds of people from various backgrounds in many ways. Proponents are always saying there have been no documented instances of issues, mistakes, abuses, or coercion since the practice has been legalized – these stories will show you that is patently false. Read the stories of these people who have engaged on the issue, been personally affected, and have been coerced and abused. Hover over the photo to learn more about each person.

Dr. Laura Petrillo

“We have an urgent responsibility to improve the experience of dying so no one feels the only option to maintain their dignity is to hasten their death.”

John Kelly

“Individuals told me directly that they would rather be dead than like me, while movies and TV showed characters with my disability clamoring for death.”

Anita Cameron

“As a Black Latina, I could never wrap my head around the assisted suicide phenomenon. I thought that it was some odd thing that privileged White people were into.”

Stephanie Packer

“I was stunned that much cheaper lethal drugs would be available to me rather than treatment to save my life...”

Ruthie Poole

“As people with psychiatric disabilities, M-POWER members feel passionately about the right to self-determination. However, that is not what assisted suicide gives us..."

Tahni Morell

“My late husband, Paul, fought an 8-year battle against colorectal cancer. Six of those years were after being given a Stage 4 diagnosis. Paul lived far longer than any prognosis ever given to him..."

Diane Coleman

"As someone who uses breathing assistance, Diane is constantly pressured by the pervasive, common attitude which considers severe disability a fate worse than death..."

Kate Cheney

Kate Cheney, an 85-year-old dementia patient, requested assisted suicide drugs and was originally denied by her physician, but her daughter shopped for a doctor until one wrote the prescription.

Randy Stroup

"Since the chemotherapy drug Randy requested would not certainly extend his life by 5 years, the state’s rationed care system rejected the request..."

Terri Hancharick

“There are no safeguards against social and medical bigotry toward a person with significant disabilities, I agree with the National Council on Disability…”

Conrad Reynoldson

“I could easily get a doctor to say that I meet the criteria for assisted suicide…Yet assisted suicide would be entirely inappropriate for someone like me.”

Lynette Taylor Grande

28 years ago, teacher Lynette Taylor Grande was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given a 10% chance to live...

Teresa Caruso

“I am bedridden and use a wheelchair… Will I be judged as a person whose life is not worth living?”

Tamara Cowan

“Let’s not normalize suicide under the guise of ‘death with dignity,’ ‘compassion,’ or a ‘medical treatment option.’”

JJ Hanson

“If I’d had suicide pills with me in my nightstand during my 5th month of treatment, I might have taken them, and you can’t undo that.”

Michael Freeland

“Oregon’s flimsy safeguards do not protect people with psychiatric and other mental health disabilities.”

Lynda Holler

“When you have a terminal illness, regular life doesn’t stop. The washing machine still breaks down, the car gets flat tires... It can be those things that cause us to break down, to feel that we no longer have the strength to go on.”

Jeanette Hall

“If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Sarah Steele

In 2006, Sarah Steele was diagnosed with a terminal, primary brain tumor at 33 years old and was told she had 6 months to live. Yet, she is still alive today!

Denise

"I've applied for [assisted death] essentially... because of abject poverty."

Kathryn Judson

“I was afraid to leave my husband alone…”

Lenora Lemay

“I wondered if I might qualify for assisted suicide with life-ending pills. And if I did, and it were legal here, would I have used them?”

Jane Doe

"Assisted suicide laws fail to promote meaningful patient assessment, thereby abandoning some patients when they need the most support."

Barbara Wagner

“They will pay to kill me, but they will not give me the medication to try and stop the growth of my cancer.”

Thomas Middleton

“Oregon Health Authority does not investigate whether patients met the [assisted suicide legislation] criteria, nor how their diagnoses, prognoses, and treatment options were determined.”*

Jackie Bieber

“Talking about assisted suicide is very dangerous especially when you have younger kids… and the vulnerable that feel lost and are in pain...’”

Linda Fleming

If a patient chooses to stop managing their diabetes or their insurance company denies coverage for insulin, they will qualify for assisted suicide.

Heather Weininger

"We have already opened pandora’s box to physician-assisted suicide for “terminal illness.” Now, I am distraught to learn it is being extended to anorexia... "

Patient with Diabetes

He asked his doctor, a participating physician in Oregon, if he could qualify for assisted suicide. Thankfully, his doctor refused him...

Brianna Hammond

“As a disability-rights advocate, I am concerned about choice, self-determination, and bodily autonomy and that is why I am opposed to the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide.”

Jenifer Bowen

"My fear is that if the option to give me lethal drugs was on the table, my medical team could just give up on me..."

Patrick Matheny

“We do not know exactly how he helped this person swallow, whether it was putting a feeding tube down or whatever, but he was not prosecuted…”*

Dr. Brian Callister

“Legalizing assisted suicide actually limits your choices and access to healthcare by creating perverse incentives for insurance companies to deny costly care and offer a cheap death instead.”

José Hernandez

"My mother played an essential role in me being who I am... If she had chosen medically assisted suicide, we would have ended up with my father..."

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