Alex Schadenberg Provides Updated Information Regarding Assisted Suicide

The 2023 Colorado assisted suicide report indicates that assisted suicide poison prescriptions and deaths have continued to rise every year since legalization.

Even though the number of assisted suicide deaths is continually increasing, Colorado Governor Gary Polis signed Senate Bill 24-068, on June 5th, to expand [that] State['s] assisted suicide law. Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide has expanded [its] law.

The Colorado assisted suicide report indicate[s] that in 2023 there were 389 lethal poison prescriptions written, which was up by more than 22% from 318 in 2022, 218 in 2021, and 185 in 2020.

The Colorado report [also] indicate[s] that in 2023, 294 of the lethal poison prescriptions were dispensed, which was up by more than 18% from 249 in 2022, 164 in 2021 and 149 in 2020.

The data seems confusing since Colorado collects information on the number of lethal poison prescriptions that are written, and it collects information on the number of lethal poison prescriptions dispensed[,] but it doesn't collect information on how many people actually died by assisted suicide.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities – Part 1.

By Ian McIntosh, Executive Director, Not Dead Yet, 12/03/25, pictured here.

Today is the UN-recognized International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a theme of fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.

This year's focus on disability inclusivity as the predicate for social development (including economics, employment, social service systems, etc.) feels practically defiant in view of (and certainly at odds with) several international developments this year regarding legalization and expansion of assisted suicide and euthanasia which, rather than promoting inclusivity, sanction elimination of disabled people from society.

Among them, and hot off the federal government presses, Health Canada just five days ago released the Sixth Annual Report on Medical Aid in Dying in Canada. In it, continued and increasing disturbing trends for nonterminal disabled Canadians showcase anything but a disability inclusive society that is advancing social progress.

Diane Coleman Inducted Into New York State Disability Rights Hall of Fame, Class of 2025

In collaboration with the 2025 New York Association on Independent Living’s (NYAIL) statewide conference, the New York State Independent Living Council (NYSILC) held its sixth New York State Disability Rights Hall of Fame awards ceremony and dinner, and Not Dead Yet’s Founder and CEO, Diane Coleman, [pictured right] was the first of the night to be honored with a posthumous award “For lifelong achievements which positively impact people with disabilities in society.”

For those who couldn’t attend the awards ceremony and dinner, the Patients Rights Action Fund’s (PRAF) Executive Director, Matt Vallière, and NDY’s Executive Director, Ian McIntosh, accepted the award on behalf of Diane Coleman who passed away suddenly, last November 1, 2024.

Please find NDY’s acceptance speech and two more photos below:

Trump takes aim at Somalis as feds prep for Minneapolis operation

(NewsNation) — In its latest immigration crackdown, the Trump administration will head to Minneapolis, targeting Somali immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

The city is home to more than 80,000 people of Somali descent. News of the operation comes as President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against the community, saying he did not want immigrants from Somalia in the U.S. because “they contribute nothing.”

Trump also continued his attacks on Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, [pictured here]  who is of Somali descent, saying during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Omar is “an incompetent person.”

It also comes as some in the community are under fraud investigations, including allegations that millions of dollars from Minnesota state welfare programs instead went to a terrorist group called al-Shabab in Somalia.

Omar told NewsNation she felt Trump’s comments on the Somali community were “totally irresponsible.”