Suicide for People with Disabilities
Considering that this blog is primarily focused on disability policy issues, it is rare that I choose to step beyond analysis and thoughtful discussion of law and rights into the arena of personal opinion, particularly when it comes to specific controvercial issues. However, the following news articles caught my attention and rather surprised me with my own emotional response.
Having been someone with a disability for almost 15 years and considering myself a successful and happy individual overall, I have to admit that it still shocks me when I see and hear people say things like, “I would rather die than live with a disability.” It is more than shock, I find it disturbing. Why? Because it negates my entire life. It is like saying everything I’ve done and everything I do now, as a person with a disability, my life, is meaningless. It isn’t worth living.
The following video is from Saturday on CNN. My apologies in that I haven’t completed a transcript yet, but I will get it up as soon as I have completed it. In short, the story is about a young man, 23 years old, who after being paralyzed from the chest down, a year later travelled to Switzerland to take his own life. Why? He didn’t want to live a “second class existence.”
Thoughts? Comments? Right now, I just wish the young man had had the opportunity to really talk to other people with disabilities. Those who’ve been there and who can relate and can let him know that there is so much more to living than just a “fully functioning” body. The waste, makes me angry and the fact that there is a debate around the issue makes me even angrier. The assumption is that without a fully functioning body, people (and people with disabilities) have nothing to contribute to society and this world.
You can watch the video below and find out more at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/18/uk.switzerland.assisted.suicide/index.html
This is just to sad. We think we live in a progressive world where this does not happen. How sad it is that we are mistaken.
Wow.
There’s a graphic novel I taught today by a man named Percy Carey, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a shooting. He’s a successful record producer and his graphic novel is fabulous. He’s also rather handsome, deeply polite, and I assume doesn’t suffer from lack of romantic company unless by choice. I mean, people know he’s disabled, but his art is what comes to mind when people think of him, not his disability.
Laurel
One thing that’s extremely lacking in disability services these days is mentoring for young people who become disabled. I know that for me, suicide was never far from my mind for the first few years after my injury. There was definitely the message that my options were to get completely better, or essentially give up on having anything that might be considered a happy or productive life.
[...] following is cross-posted from my policy blog: http://dayinwashington.com/?p=162. Please go there for more information and the original video. [...]
[...] I just wanted to put up a link to William Peace’s thoughtful comments on the suicide of Daniel James of the UK and to also put up a note about the ongoing discussion on this issue over at Disaboom where I cross-posted my own article on the issue of “disability suicide.” [...]
Thanks for posting this! Life is not a all or nothing scale….it’s what we do with what we have.