PRESS RELEASE

Not Dead Yet
7521 Madison
Forest Park, IL 60130

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Carol Cleigh, Treasurer, 847-869-8185 or
Diane Coleman, President
Not Dead Yet
708-209-1500   Fax: 708-209-1735


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Not Dead Yet Deplores PBS Bias

[Forest Park, IL], [September 17, 2000]—

        Not Dead Yet, the disability rights organization dedicated to
opposing assisted suicide and euthanasia, deplores the profoundly biased
PBS series "On Our Own Terms; Moyers on Dying"  and calls upon Bill Moyers
and PBS to tell the whole story!  Although the series gave the appearance
of balance, the lack of any attention to the disability perspective
created a biased reality.  "By telling only one side of the story on
physician induced death, Moyers distorted the discussion," said Diane
Coleman, founder and President of Not Dead Yet.  "The third segment
reinforced public fears of disability and stereotypes about disability and
ignored the oppressive dynamic in the relationship between the guy with
ALS and his wife.  She rejects in-home services that he would accept in
the name of his ‘dignity' and thereby martyrs herself and leaves him
without other options.  Such dynamics, while complex, are all too familiar
to persons with disabilities.  We, however, were excluded from the
discussion and marginalized by Moyer's opening comments.  Essentially
while feigning impartiality, Moyers took a position in support of
Physician Induced Death," Coleman continued. 

        "By not connecting the dots of health care rationed under
‘futility' guidelines in the first installment, the feeling of being a
‘burden' and the ‘sacrifices' of the family members contributing to the
desire to die in the third with the devastating effect of poverty, lack of
home services and abandonment by family and friends in the final
installment, Moyers has presented an essentially able-ist view," says Mary
Lopez, sociologist and Not Dead Yet supporter.  "The disability community
has a different view in which health care, personal assistance services
and home modifications are not luxuries but necessities which should be
available to all." 

        "We call upon not only PBS to provide us with equal time, but upon
the foundations that supported this one-sided approach and allowed the
producers to rebuff all of our attempts to become involved to provide us
with equal resources with which to resist the lies of the ‘better dead
than disabled' movement," says Not Dead Yet's Treasurer, Carol Cleigh. 

W. Carol Cleigh,
Disability Rights Activist
cleigh@megsinet.net