Abbreviation NDY Leader Diane Coleman, founder | Type group | |
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Formation April 27, 1996; 20 years ago (1996-04-27) Purpose Disability rights; right to life Headquarters Rochester, New York, United States | ||
Not Dead Yet (NDY) is a United States disability rights group that opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia for people with disabilities. Diane Coleman, JD, is the founder and president of this national group. Stephen Drake, a research analyst with NDY, is one of the group's chief spokespersons and contacts for press releases.
The group was founded on April 27, 1996. Its name comes from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which plague victims are thrown into a cart and hauled off to be buried. A man being given up as a corpse by his family protests that he is "not dead yet!"
In 2004 NDY protested the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. They also protested the movie Million Dollar Baby, in which the injection of an overdose of epinephrine to euthanize a suicidal quadriplegic woman is depicted as a rational and compassionate act. The group has been highly critical of utilitarian philosophers such as Peter Singer of Princeton University. Coleman has called Professor Singer "the most dangerous man on earth" and accused him of advocating genocide. In June 2015 NDY organized protests against Singer's position that disabled newborn babies be killed. The protesters called for Princeton University to dismiss Singer.