> Please share widely!
> From: " C Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 9:12 AM
> Subject: My article today in The Independent: Disabled people need
> assistance to live, not die.
>
>
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/clair-lewis-disabled-people-need-assistance-to-live-not-die-1911313.html
>
>
> Clair Lewis: Disabled people need assistance to live, not die
> Friday, 26 February 2010
>
> There is a saying among disabled people that goes: "If it hurts, we know
> we're alive". Like most humans our natural instinct is not merely to survive
> but to flourish. For this we need assistance to live, not die. Disabled
> people suffer so much neglect, isolation, exclusion and discrimination that
> some volunteer for euthanasia. But this is not the only way to address
> suffering. What about assistance to live?
>
> When healthy people are suicidal, the usual response is to try to help them
> live better lives, not provide a solution which encourages them to die. It
> seems that disabled people are the only people who can be suicidal and
> mentally competent at the same time. Help offered to people with suicidal
> feelings is often inadequate. But however strapped for cash the NHS is, the
> one thing they won't do is offer to finish the job off properly.
>
> This is why people like me are so concerned about the Director of Public
> Prosecution's new guidelines on assisted suicide. On the surface, they look
> like an attempt to equalise the legislation - they move the focus on to the
> motivations of the assistant, widen up who may assist in a suicide and pay
> particular attention to whether an assistant's actions were "compassionate".
> But what is the definition of compassion?
>
> Killing someone isn't usually seen as compassionate, except when we're
> talking about sick people, because we're subject to the social belief that
> it is better to be dead than disabled. I wonder if the DPP's insistence that
> a victim must have "reached a voluntary, clear, settled and informed
> decision to commit suicide" will also apply to a physically healthy person
> who has expressed a desire to end their life? If not, this guidance remains
> as discriminatory as before.
> Most people who have stared death in the face will tell you how much they
> value their life. Humans are resilient, but most of us do not realise that
> until our capacity is tested. That is why people who have severe illnesses
> need to be the experts informing discussions relating to end-of-life care.
>
> Despite the slow march towards equal rights for disabled people and those
> with long-term illnesses, the Government would prefer to ration healthcare,
> and social services are underfunded to the point that they now refuse
> support to anyone not in serious crisis. Meanwhile, the media is misleading
> the public that disabled people's lives are terrible. They rarely consider
> the reasons, other than our impairments, why we might be having such a bad
> time. Social isolation, abuse, lack of equipment, being dumped in
> institutions, lack of opportunity, poor healthcare, insufficient support and
> inaccessible housing contribute to making people feel their lives are not
> worth living.
>
> I believe the root of public opinion is fear of suffering, and I agree that
> nobody wants to suffer. So why are we not looking for solutions that do not
> involve people having to die? The concept of liberating people from
> suffering by offering them fatal medication is more like an idea for a
> horror movie than a social policy.
>
> Clair Lewis is a disabled activist with the Direct Action Network
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