John Kelly, a disability rights activist with Second Thoughts Massachusetts, has an article in the Newark (New Jersey) Star Ledger that does a masterful job of cutting through the sentimentality and the shallow idea of compassion behind the selling of assisted suicide laws. Sadly, some individuals have bought the idea that living until their natural deaths will hold nothing … [Read more...] about Looking Beyond Shallow “Compassion” Reveals the Real Cruelty of Legal Assisted Suicide
Devaluation of Lives with Disabilities
Decisions at the End of Life: Age will have little to do with what I want, and nothing to do with what I deserve.
Written by a Compassion and Choices member whose mother committed suicide, this article is right on in pointing out the hypocrisy (practiced every day by Compassion and Choices) of trumpeting autonomy while telling the old and people with disabilities that their lives are not worth living and their medical care not worth paying for. It's well worth reading, even though we at … [Read more...] about Decisions at the End of Life: Age will have little to do with what I want, and nothing to do with what I deserve.
Ezekiel Emanuel’s Latest Rant
Ezekiel Emanuel has spent his life building an impressive resume and now, at age 56, he wants the world to know that by 75 he plans to stop working so hard. In fact, he says that if he is still alive at 75, his master plan is to “stop all medical treatment” with the goal of avoiding such horrors of old age as frailty and forgetfulness. Emanuel told Judy Woodruff on PBS News … [Read more...] about Ezekiel Emanuel’s Latest Rant
More on Prejudice and Presumption about the Value of Life with Disability
Read the comments as well as this excellent blog post against assisted suicide. Why do those who do not tolerate the stereotyping of people of color or women so easily and unthinkingly make and state judgments that the lives of people with disabilities and old people as not worthy of support? These people's lives are already endangered, and legal assisted suicide will … [Read more...] about More on Prejudice and Presumption about the Value of Life with Disability
The Double Standard of Assisted Suicide
This blogpost from Paul Russell addresses Australia's most recent euthanasia-related controversy: http://blog.noeuthanasia.org.au/2014/07/at-last-we-wake-up-to-dr-death.html Russell states that tolerance of any suicide sends a very mixed message such that, "Suicide should be prevented, except, perhaps, you know, when you're really ill or dying; or maybe when you're very … [Read more...] about The Double Standard of Assisted Suicide