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"Legislators and the public should not be fooled by a privileged lobby that seeks to sell suicide as a solution to their own disability-phobia. We should follow the recommendations of the National Council on Disability’s report, The Danger of Assisted Suicide Laws, and reject codifying lethal and systemic disability discrimination into law."   ... Stephen Mendelsohn.

Opinion: We Need a Proposal For Real End-of-life ... by André N. Sofair, MD. [CT Post, March 7, 2023]

Assisted Suicide Lobby Spreads Falsehoods To Promote Systemic Ableism [CT Mirror, March 8, 2021]

Second Thoughts Connecticut Press Release

[January, 2021]

"Assisted Suicide Is Bad Medicine"

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"Legislators Need To See Our Tears"

Writes Woman With a Disability

as Connecticut Senator Tries to

Use COVID-19 as an Excuse Not to Hold Public Hearings

"Health Care, Not Assisted Suicide" by Joan Cavanagh [New Haven Register, March 19, 2020]

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In 2020, Disability Community AGAIN Faced with a Connecticut Assisted Suicide Bill!

"Nearly every year for the past decade, Cathy Ludlum of Manchester has visited the state Capitol to oppose legislation that would allow Connecticut doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients.

She returned Friday as 12 members of the legislature’s public health committee voted to raise the controversial aid-in-dying legislation. Nine voted against raising the bill, while four members were absent. Not all raised bills proceed to a public hearing, although most do.

'Is it going to have a different outcome than it has in the past? Is it likely to be another one of these 12- hour, 15-hour hearings?' asked Ludlum who has spinal muscular atrophy and is the founder of the disability rights group Second Thoughts Connecticut.

'It’s taken up a lot of the legislators’ time, it takes a lot of our time, [and] the time of many Connecticut people who have strong opinions,' she said. 'Everyone needs to be heard, and I get all of that, but I think we’re all feeling like we just went through this.'"

Disability Community Spearheads Defeat of 2019 Connecticut Assisted Suicide Bill

April 2019 VICTORY! Assisted suicide bill HB 5898 dies in committee without a vote—we are now 5 for 5 in defeating assisted suicide bills in the very first committee of cognizance since 2013:

From an WNPR article:

"Elaine Kolb, of West Haven, testified last month against the bill as an activist for disability rights and a member of Second Thoughts Connecticut, . . . said patients and medical professionals may be quick to refer to aid-in-dying without acknowledging what someone with a disability is still capable of doing.

'I expect I will stay on this battlefield, til I die,' Kolb said in a statement."

• Assisted Suicide Does Not Increase Personal Choice

• Strong Disability Advocacy Leads to Defeat of Dangerous Bill

• Testimony of Attorney Mark W. Dost on 2018 Assisted Suicide Bill in Connecticut

• 13 Reasons Why There Is Hope

• Catherine D. Ludlum's Testimony on Proposed Bill 5564 An Act Concerning Accessibility of Medical Diagnostic Equipment