A few years ago, we had a pretty blunt exchange (at least by US
standards) on the DS-HUM listserv that's more oriented toward my side of
the ocean. Like everyone else, I have an opinion, one which can be read
online in several places as "An Advocate for Infanticide," my speech at
an anti-Peter Singer rally when he spoke here in the frozen north at my
university for big money while the crips rallied in the cold outside. A
number of sources, including a Catholic website, posted it. I would, in
this the silver anniversary of my diagnosis as a unipolar depressive,
add my empathy to that being shared by the Aspies on this list. I think
I get it.
But I'm posting for a different reason. I think the transsexual
literature is enlightening on these questions, though perhaps
indirectly. This is a community whose leaders (at least the ones I
read) regard their situation as a "birth defect" and who rely on the
medical world to "correct" it. Their entanglements with the medical
model are thus substantial and tend to include extended relationships
with physicians and other health workers, some of whom are, in that
case, allies. Of course, getting the things (meds, surgery) one needs
to change sex is not the same as getting the things (meds, assistance)
one needs to change life status, but the need to engage the medical
world in a manner the social model struggles with is conceptually
related. By the way, the instance of suicide among transsexuals,
especially those who aren't able to access medical assistance, is high.
I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes things might be more intricate
than a fundamentalist social model can accommodate. I suspect not
everyone on this list agrees with everything Tom Shakespeare has said
about revisiting the social model, but I've found it useful. He's also
articulated the differences between the model invented in the UK and the
way we've translated it here in a way that I've found helpful. The
differences amount to more than just our more efficient set of spellings.
Best,
A Velarde wrote:
> I guess this posit the quesion about the limits of the social model
> paradigm. if society disables the impaired individual, could society
> 'empower ' him/her to end its participation in society? Would the
> individual
> (whatwever his validity claim, can request such support from the social
> group he/she wants top abandom, ind by doing so, opening a door from
> which
> social model activist would be have their validity claims undermined?
>
> If the answer is yes, the individual need to make his/her case by
> constructing a different paradigm. So far it is base on a self centrer
> phylosophy (on both sides of the argument for and against it) . Best,
> Andy
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julia Cameron"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 2:23 PM
> Subject: Re: Assisted Suicide
>
>
>> I haven't posted on this list for ages, but this subject gets me going a
>> bit. I can see the validity of the disability movement's arguments,
>> but I
>> also share Jeremy's concerns.
>>
>> Some adults who choose to end their lives can do it themselves without
>> asistance from anyone else. However, people with some impairments,
>> often
>> those nearing the end of life or with severe dementia, cannot effect
>> this
>> choice without the assistance of others. When those people who need
>> asistance to end their lives (as assistance may be used by disabled
>> people
>> in many other areas of our lives) are also those whose lives contain
>> little capacity for pleasure and meaning (because of extreme pain,
>> say, or
>> dementia), to withhold the possibility of this assistance seems
>> particularly unjust. Why should some disabled people be denied a choice
>> which non-disabled (and some other disabled) people can make. We
>> wouldn't
>> countenance this in any other area of our lives.
>>
>> Do people think this is an area where there may be some differences
>> between disabled people who have grown up with their impairment and
>> those
>> who acquired it as adults? It seems to be those with acquired
>> disability
>> who may be more likely to feel their quality of life is so reduced by a
>> new or worsening impairment that they want to die.
>>
>> This said I am not remotely supporting an increase in suicide! In fact
>> the opposite - it is desperately sad when anyone feels their life is no
>> longer worth living. A more supportive and inclusive society would
>> surely
>> increase meaning and connection for everyone, enabling us all to keep
>> enjoying and valuing our lives, and reducing the numbers of people both
>> disabled and non-disabled who feel they cannot bear any more.
>>
>> Julia
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryant, Helen"
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:34 AM
>> Subject: Assisted Suicide
>>
>>
>> Dawna wrote:
>>
>> "That documentary really opened my eyes to the heavy influence the
>> medical
>> community has on people with disabilities. Doctors are the ones that
>> decide whether someone is in a non-responsive or vegetative state, to
>> make
>> the decision that someone will never live a "normal life"
>>
>> About 2000 years ago (give or take a millennium), a chap called Juvenal
>> wrote:
>>
>> "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
>>
>> which, for those of us without Latin (including me) means
>> "...but who will guard the guards?"
>>
>> I think that says it all...
>> Helen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> www. everyclick.com - every click <http://www.everyclick.com/> helps. I
>> search <http://www.everyclick.com/> the web and raise money for charity
>> with Everyclick.
>>
>>
>> Helen Fiona Bryant
>> Access Officer Reading Borough Council
>> Policy & Sustainability
>> Level 7
>> Civic Centre
>> READING RG1 7AE
>> [log in to unmask]
>> www.reading.gov.uk/transportandstreets/accessiblereading/
>> tel:
>> fax: +44 (0) 118 939 0581
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>>
>> +44 (0) 119 939 0155
>>
>>
>> Want to always have my latest info?
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> This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for
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--
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Morse Alumni/Graduate & Professional Distinguished Teaching Professor
Music/Jewish Studies/American Studies
University of Minnesota
Chair, Senate Disability Issues Committee
President, Hillel at the University of Minnesota
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