CW: Assisted Suicide
Clifton Perez, a Troy, New York native who was born legally blind, has dedicated his life blazing trails and advocating for disabled people’s rights. In the late 1970s, he was among the first legally blind people to attend Hudson Valley Community College, when he joined the track team and worked as a sports photographer for the school newspaper. He also encouraged the school to establish an Office of Disabled Student Services.
Perez, 70, frequently laughs and smiles, praising the marvels of life. However, he grows somber when discussing what he sees as a potential threat to the disability community: a proposal to allow death with dignity in New York.
Such laws have been debated for more than a decade, with fervent supporters arguing that allowing “medical aid in dying,” as they prefer to call it, would demonstrate compassion for terminally ill people who are suffering needlessly. They argue that it is about having the freedom to choose one’s own end-of-life plan. Those arguments had not been successful in the state Legislature until late last month, when a bill authorizing death with dignity laws rapidly passed the Assembly, marking the first time the legislation had made it to the floor of either chamber since its introduction in 2016.
That surprising success delighted supporters, but concerned Perez and other opponents who believe there is a dark and harmful side to the intended compassion. Perez says that persons with disabilities, as well as people of color, are still regarded as if their lives are of lesser value. Those inequalities, he says, will undoubtedly find their way into any system that permits medical professionals to decide when death is the best option. This is particularly pertinent given how often financial considerations play a role in care.
Unfortunately, these beliefs have a long and troubling history. Carrie Buck was a woman who was confined to a state mental facility because she was “feeble-minded.” Her condition had been passed down through three generations in her family. To improve the “health of the patient and the welfare of society,” a Virginia statute authorized residents of institutions to be forcibly sterilized.
On May 2, 1927, in an 8–1 decision, the Court ruled that Buck, her mother, and her daughter were “feeble-minded” and “promiscuous” and that it was in the state’s interest to have her sterilized. “Three generations of imbeciles are enough,” wrote justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who argued that people with disabilities “sap the strength of the state.”
Between 1927 and 1972, roughly 8,300 sterilizations were completed under state law. Buck, despite her diagnosis lived an active life after her release from the institution. She died in 1983 at the age of 76.
Corinne Carey, campaign director for the Compassion & Choices advocacy group, says that Perez’s beliefs are “irresponsible fear-mongering.” “If there has been any hint that these laws were used in ways that harmed people with disabilities, we would have heard about it,” Carey said, adding that New York’s bill includes safeguards limiting eligibility to patients with an incurable illness that has been medically confirmed and will likely lead to death within six months.
However, opponents of assisted suicide refer to Canada as an example of where a slippery slope could go. That country’s initial 2016 legislation, forced by a court order, included language similar to what is proposed in New York, but the law was later amended to broaden eligibility and allow any adult with a serious illness, disease, or disability to receive a medically induced death.
Some disabled Canadians have decided to die due to mounting bills and financial stress. Amir Farsoud from St. Catharines ON wanted to pursue medical aid in dying (MAiD) in 2022. He didn’t actually want to die. However, he feared that he would have nowhere to live after the rooming house he lived in was put up for sale. Farsoud who is disabled due to chronic back pain had been living off a monthly check from Ontario’s Disability Support Program.
A GoFundMe page helped Farsoud get out of debt, and secure stable housing. The fundraiser was a success, having raised more than $60,000. Without the generosity of strangers, he would have died three years ago.
Others argue that it renders disabled people virtually disposable. A University of British Columbia professor called the law “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s.”
Carey argues that Canada’s laws do not reflect the experience of ten states in the United States where physician-assisted death is allowed. In those states and the District of Columbia, the criteria for eligibility remain unchanged and the option is still limited to the terminally ill.
Nonetheless, the Canadian laws show that Perez’s and other disability rights activists’ concerns are not without merit. And he speaks from a lifetime of experience, which has taught him that some people are still valued more than others. Holistic care is essential to ensuring that disabled people are healthy, safe, and comfortable.
Sources:
Churchill , Chris. “Churchill: For Disability Rights Advocate, This ‘compassion’ Is a Threat.” The Times Union, Hearst Corporation, 10 May 2025, http://www.timesunion.com/churchill/article/churchill-disability-advocate-compassion-20319170.php.
Cohen, Adam. Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. Penguin Books, 2017.
Leffler, Brennan, and Marianne Dimain. “How Poverty, Not Pain, Is Driving Canadians with Disabilities to Consider Medically-Assisted Death.” Global News, Global News, 8 Oct. 2022, https://globalnews.ca/news/9176485/poverty-canadians-disabilities-medically-assisted-death/.
Mulligan, Cynthia, and Meredith Bond. “Ontario Man Applying for Medically-Assisted Death as Alternative to Being Homeless.” CityNews, Rogers Sports &Media, 13 Oct. 2022, https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/10/13/medical-assistance-death-maid-canada/.
Tanatarova, Elmira. “Disabled Canadian Man Celebrates His ‘deathaversary’ a Year on from the Day He Was Supposed to Die after Being Offered Euthanasia ‘Because He Was Homeless’ – but Was Saved at the Last Minute by a Fundraiser Which Pulled Him out of Crippling Debt.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 14 May 2024, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13413075/amp/Disabled-Canadian-euthanasia-programme.html.