On October 17, 2017, the American Association of Suicidology issued a statement announcing that physician assisted suicide is not “suicide”. The Executive Summary states:
“The American Association of Suicidology recognizes that the practice of physician aid in dying, also called physician assisted suicide, Death with Dignity, and medical aid in dying, is distinct from the behavior that has been traditionally and ordinarily described as ‘suicide,’ the tragic event our organization works so hard to prevent. Although there may be overlap between the two categories, legal physician assisted deaths should not be considered cases of suicide and are therefore a matter outside the central focus of AAS.”
“Welcome to your new sleeker AAS,” wrote Not Dead Yet research analyst Stephen Drake in a flyer distributed by disability activists at the Association’s annual conference held at the Hyatt Regency at Capitol Hill today. “For the first time, this organization has formally begun to narrow its mission – accomplished by declaring the suicides of some people to not be suicides at all.”
The leaflets were distributed as Association members arrived for a moderated debate about the statement. The flyer asks, “Shouldn’t this debate have happened last year?” and raised several issues for psychiatrists, psychologists and other professionals to consider.
One of the activists, former certified crisis worker Sheryl Grossman said, “How can it be that the organization that trained me that any statement of desire to harm oneself is a cry for help, can now turn around and say, oh, but not for terminally ill, disabled, or chronically ill people? I am deeply disappointed and ashamed of the AAS and urge them change their position.”
Disability advocates who have been following and opposing assisted suicide advocacy claim that the suicide prevention community has been determinedly silent when it comes to so-called “aid in dying” – whether we’re talking about legalization efforts or hundreds of news stories about the Final Exit Network facilitating the suicides of people with nonterminal disabilities using such means as helium “exit bags”. They attribute the silence to a combination of moral cowardice, ageism, and ableism.
Advocates urge the Association to reverse the position statement and embrace the idea that all suicides are preventable tragedies, including those of older, ill and disabled people.