Assisted suicide has become legal in many parts of the United States. This makes me worry about where the medical field is heading.<\/p>\n
Legalized assisted suicide and killing the disabled<\/strong><\/h3>\nMy home state of New Jersey has legalized assisted suicide. The law is limited, but as we know, over time, the government tends to expand the rules about who qualifies for assisted suicide.<\/p>\n
Canada has a law providing the option of euthanasia to those with terminal illnesses. Over 78% of euthanasia victims\u00a0gave \u201closs of ability\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as their reason for wanting to die. The\u00a02019 report<\/a>\u00a0on Canadian euthanasia supports my statement that the loss of physical ability to do things, not pain or other symptoms, was the most common reason cited.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2-blog-RX.jpg\")
Under the law, a disabled person wanting to die only has to go through an approval process and request that a doctor kill them.<\/p>\n
Now,\u00a0a bill has been put forward<\/a>\u00a0in Canada, which will, if passed, make it even easier. Doctors would be allowed to perform euthanasia on disabled or chronically ill people upon request.<\/p>\nThe only requirement is that the illness or disability be progressive. Under the bill, if I lived in Canada, I would be eligible to be killed by a doctor upon my request.<\/p>\n
In the Netherlands, assisted suicide was first legalized for only the terminally ill, but it is now\u00a0legal<\/a>\u00a0for those with disabilities and mental illnesses who are physically healthy. For example,\u00a0this 29-year old<\/a>\u00a0who suffered from depression just died by assisted suicide.<\/p>\nIs the United States going to travel down the same road as Canada and the Netherlands? Will assisted suicide be legalized for those with disabilities in the future?<\/p>\n
Disabled people sometimes seek mental health care for depression or other mental illnesses. How will the legalization of assisted suicide affect this mental health care? How will doctors\u2019 willingness to help end lives that they assume are \u201cnot worth living\u201d affect the way they care for disabled people?<\/p>\n
Doctors and the value of disabled peoples\u2019 lives<\/strong><\/h3>\nWe already know that many doctors don\u2019t see the value of disabled people\u2019s lives. This is evident in how\u00a0disabled people with COVID were denied care<\/a>\u00a0in Oregon, with some dying as a result.<\/p>\nIn hospitals in Oregon, disabled people were denied respirators. They were refused admission to intensive care units. They were pressured into signing DNR (do not resuscitate) orders, even when they were cognitively disabled and didn\u2019t understand what the forms meant.<\/p>\n
One disabled woman died of COVID after the hospital refused to treat her, even though she had a legal directive saying that she wanted to receive intensive care. Her caregiver tried to intervene, but the hospital still refused to treat the woman. And she died.<\/p>\n
Caregivers brought a paralyzed man to the hospital, only to have hospital workers say (in front of him) that they didn\u2019t want to waste a COVID test on him. They wanted the caregivers to take him home to die. The doctors told the caregivers that the man had no \u201cquality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The caregivers successfully got the hospital to admit the man, but the hospital discharged him with orders to his nursing home to stop feeding him and to let him starve to death. Fortunately, the workers at the nursing home ignored this order.<\/p>\n
Why do doctors see such little value in disabled peoples\u2019 lives? Author, researcher, and doctor John Wyatt wrote in his book\u00a0Matters of Life & Death: Human Dilemmas in the Light of the Christian Faith<\/a>\u00a0that most doctors:<\/p>\nhave little first-hand experience of the lives of children and adults with disability. Hence, their understanding of the lives of disabled people is mainly drawn from the medical literature, especially standard medical textbooks.<\/p>\n
There is a strong tendency for health professionals to list and emphasize the precise medical and functional impairments associated with a particular diagnosis, without counterbalancing emphasis on the abilities and positive features of the lives of people with the condition\u2026<\/p>\n
There is accumulating evidence that health professionals consistently undervalue the quality of life of the disabled . . ..compared with parents and with the individuals themselves.<\/p>\n
Wyatt\u00a0cites a study<\/a>\u00a0that backs up his claims.<\/p>\nLegalized assisted suicide only reinforces doctors\u2019 beliefs that disabled people have lives that aren\u2019t worth living.<\/p>\n
What type of medical care will I get?<\/p>\n
RA is a progressive disease, and I wonder what type of health care I will receive as I get older and become more severely disabled.<\/p>\n
RA can, in fact, become terminal if it attacks the heart or other organs. I wonder if I will ever be pressured to accept assisted suicide. Even more so, I wonder whether I will get the same suicide prevention services as an able-bodied person if I need them.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2-blog-Not-Dead-Yet.jpg\")
from the home page of Not Dead Yet<\/a><\/p><\/div>\nA disabled person is given suicide advice, not suicide prevention<\/strong><\/h3>\nRecently in New Zealand, there was a case where a young woman named Claire Freeman<\/a>, who was wheelchair-bound and in chronic pain, in a similar situation as mine, attempted suicide. She went into a mental hospital. She told the psychologist who was assigned to her that she wanted to die.<\/p>\nInstead of treating Freeman\u2019s depression and counseling her against suicide, the doctor suggested she travel to Switzerland to a suicide clinic and kill herself there.<\/p>\n
Every able-bodied patient in that hospital was being told not to kill themselves and receiving therapy and medication to treat their suicidal feelings. But a person in a wheelchair was encouraged, by her own doctor, to kill herself.<\/p>\n
Freeman says:<\/p>\n
I realized that a lot of the advice I had been given, like from the psychologist and from a psychiatrist who saw me after an earlier suicide attempt, was because they were looking at me and just seeing the disability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not saying, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s going on in your life? Are you working too much? Are you in too much pain?\u2019<\/p>\n
None of those questions were asked, it was just, \u2018Of course she wants to die, she\u2019s in a wheelchair, she\u2019s in pain.\u2019<\/p>\n
Freeman changed her mind about suicide and is now glad to be alive.<\/p>\n
My own struggles with suicide<\/strong><\/h3>\nDue to my bipolar disorder, I have sometimes struggled with suicidal feelings. In my 20s, I spent time in a mental hospital. I was young and physically able-bodied then. I didn\u2019t develop RA until I was in my 30s.<\/p>\n
The doctors were determined to prevent my suicide and worked with me to overcome those thoughts and feelings. I can\u2019t help but wonder if I ever need to go into the hospital again, will I be treated the same way now that I am in a wheelchair?<\/p>\n
Maybe I would today, but what about 10 years from now, when my disability is even more severe? What about 20 years from now?<\/p>\n
Now, if someone is actively suicidal, they can be placed in a mental hospital, even against their will, and given treatment. A person can also voluntarily seek treatment for suicidal feelings.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2-blog-med-symbol.jpg\")
If I seek treatment in the future, will doctors encourage me to live or help me die?<\/p>\n
The existence of euthanasia and assisted suicide makes my struggles harder.<\/p>\n
Every time I read a story about a disabled person who was euthanized in another country, it hurts me on a personal level. It makes me angry that people didn\u2019t see the value in their life.<\/p>\n
It makes me afraid that others won\u2019t see the value of mine.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it makes me wonder if my life really\u00a0does\u00a0have value. If so many people believe that a person like me isn\u2019t worth keeping alive, maybe I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n
The sanction given to disabled people\u2019s suicides confirms my deepest fears- that I\u2019m not valuable or important, that I\u2019m not worthy of life. Resisting these dark feelings can be hard when I\u2019m in the depths of depression.<\/p>\n
Depression lies to you.<\/p>\n
It distorts your thinking. It tells you you aren\u2019t deserving of help or love. It tells you, you are worthless. It tells you no one cares.<\/p>\n
The existence of assisted suicide reinforces these lies.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m already struggling with suicidal feelings and consider killing myself through assisted suicide, it feels like society has given me permission to do so. It sends the message that suicide is a reasonable answer to my depression, physical condition, and pain.<\/p>\n
This makes my suicidal feelings stronger.<\/p>\n
Assisted suicide affects disabled people just by being available to other disabled people.<\/p>\n
Finding allies<\/strong><\/h3>\nI am now a disability rights activist in the fight against euthanasia and assisted suicide.\u00a0Not Dead Yet<\/a>\u00a0is an organization of disabled people that sees the threat inherent in legalizing assisted suicide.<\/p>\nI found supportive people when I became involved in the pro-life movement. Specifically, the wing that holds to the\u00a0consistent life ethic.<\/a><\/p>\nThe consistent life ethic is a philosophy that all human life is valuable, and that killing, unless (some woul add) in extreme cases of self-defense, is always wrong. Those who adhere to this ethic oppose war, the death penalty, euthanasia, and abortion.<\/p>\n
Any threat to human life is something to oppose.<\/p>\n
The people I\u2019ve met through my activism value the lives of disabled people. They value my life. I\u2019ve made the best friends I\u2019ve ever had among my fellow activists. They are (peaceful) warriors who fight alongside me against the ethic that devalues lives like mine.<\/p>\n
I am grateful to have found a community of friends who value all lives, even disabled ones, and grateful that so many people are with me when I speak up for the value of my life and other disabled people\u2019s.<\/p>\n
We deserve suicide prevention, not suicide assistance.<\/p>\n
We deserve to be treated the same way as able-bodied people by the medical community.<\/p>\n
We need to continue\u00a0advocating<\/a>\u00a0for ourselves and others.<\/p>\n========================<\/p>\n
For more of our posts on this topic, see:<\/p>\n
Figuring out Euthanasia<\/a>: What Does it Really Mean?<\/p>\nLife-Affirming Doctors<\/a><\/p>\nWhen \u201cChoice\u201d Itself Hurts the Quality of Life\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n#SayHisName: The Medical Murder of Michael Hickson<\/a><\/p>\nHow Euthanasia and Poverty Threaten the Disabled\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s Cruel for the Incarcerated is Cruel for the Terminally Ill<\/a><\/p>\nWill I be Treated the Same Way Now?<\/a><\/p>\nA Lawyer\u2019s Turnaround on Baby Doe with Her Own Down Syndrome Baby<\/a><\/p>\nWill for Life \u2013 Double Down<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Tara Zoe Roshe (pen name), republished with permission from her Medium blog I am a disabled woman with\u00a0rheumatoid arthritis, a disease that attacks the joints. I use a walker or a wheelchair in my daily life but was able-bodied a short 10 years ago. Over the past few years, my physical condition has… <\/p>\n
Under the law, a disabled person wanting to die only has to go through an approval process and request that a doctor kill them.<\/p>\n
Now,\u00a0a bill has been put forward<\/a>\u00a0in Canada, which will, if passed, make it even easier. Doctors would be allowed to perform euthanasia on disabled or chronically ill people upon request.<\/p>\n The only requirement is that the illness or disability be progressive. Under the bill, if I lived in Canada, I would be eligible to be killed by a doctor upon my request.<\/p>\n In the Netherlands, assisted suicide was first legalized for only the terminally ill, but it is now\u00a0legal<\/a>\u00a0for those with disabilities and mental illnesses who are physically healthy. For example,\u00a0this 29-year old<\/a>\u00a0who suffered from depression just died by assisted suicide.<\/p>\n Is the United States going to travel down the same road as Canada and the Netherlands? Will assisted suicide be legalized for those with disabilities in the future?<\/p>\n Disabled people sometimes seek mental health care for depression or other mental illnesses. How will the legalization of assisted suicide affect this mental health care? How will doctors\u2019 willingness to help end lives that they assume are \u201cnot worth living\u201d affect the way they care for disabled people?<\/p>\n We already know that many doctors don\u2019t see the value of disabled people\u2019s lives. This is evident in how\u00a0disabled people with COVID were denied care<\/a>\u00a0in Oregon, with some dying as a result.<\/p>\n In hospitals in Oregon, disabled people were denied respirators. They were refused admission to intensive care units. They were pressured into signing DNR (do not resuscitate) orders, even when they were cognitively disabled and didn\u2019t understand what the forms meant.<\/p>\n One disabled woman died of COVID after the hospital refused to treat her, even though she had a legal directive saying that she wanted to receive intensive care. Her caregiver tried to intervene, but the hospital still refused to treat the woman. And she died.<\/p>\n Caregivers brought a paralyzed man to the hospital, only to have hospital workers say (in front of him) that they didn\u2019t want to waste a COVID test on him. They wanted the caregivers to take him home to die. The doctors told the caregivers that the man had no \u201cquality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n The caregivers successfully got the hospital to admit the man, but the hospital discharged him with orders to his nursing home to stop feeding him and to let him starve to death. Fortunately, the workers at the nursing home ignored this order.<\/p>\n Why do doctors see such little value in disabled peoples\u2019 lives? Author, researcher, and doctor John Wyatt wrote in his book\u00a0Matters of Life & Death: Human Dilemmas in the Light of the Christian Faith<\/a>\u00a0that most doctors:<\/p>\n have little first-hand experience of the lives of children and adults with disability. Hence, their understanding of the lives of disabled people is mainly drawn from the medical literature, especially standard medical textbooks.<\/p>\n There is a strong tendency for health professionals to list and emphasize the precise medical and functional impairments associated with a particular diagnosis, without counterbalancing emphasis on the abilities and positive features of the lives of people with the condition\u2026<\/p>\n There is accumulating evidence that health professionals consistently undervalue the quality of life of the disabled . . ..compared with parents and with the individuals themselves.<\/p>\n Wyatt\u00a0cites a study<\/a>\u00a0that backs up his claims.<\/p>\n Legalized assisted suicide only reinforces doctors\u2019 beliefs that disabled people have lives that aren\u2019t worth living.<\/p>\n What type of medical care will I get?<\/p>\n RA is a progressive disease, and I wonder what type of health care I will receive as I get older and become more severely disabled.<\/p>\n RA can, in fact, become terminal if it attacks the heart or other organs. I wonder if I will ever be pressured to accept assisted suicide. Even more so, I wonder whether I will get the same suicide prevention services as an able-bodied person if I need them.<\/p>\n from the home page of Not Dead Yet<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n Recently in New Zealand, there was a case where a young woman named Claire Freeman<\/a>, who was wheelchair-bound and in chronic pain, in a similar situation as mine, attempted suicide. She went into a mental hospital. She told the psychologist who was assigned to her that she wanted to die.<\/p>\n Instead of treating Freeman\u2019s depression and counseling her against suicide, the doctor suggested she travel to Switzerland to a suicide clinic and kill herself there.<\/p>\n Every able-bodied patient in that hospital was being told not to kill themselves and receiving therapy and medication to treat their suicidal feelings. But a person in a wheelchair was encouraged, by her own doctor, to kill herself.<\/p>\n Freeman says:<\/p>\n I realized that a lot of the advice I had been given, like from the psychologist and from a psychiatrist who saw me after an earlier suicide attempt, was because they were looking at me and just seeing the disability.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were not saying, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s going on in your life? Are you working too much? Are you in too much pain?\u2019<\/p>\n None of those questions were asked, it was just, \u2018Of course she wants to die, she\u2019s in a wheelchair, she\u2019s in pain.\u2019<\/p>\n Freeman changed her mind about suicide and is now glad to be alive.<\/p>\n Due to my bipolar disorder, I have sometimes struggled with suicidal feelings. In my 20s, I spent time in a mental hospital. I was young and physically able-bodied then. I didn\u2019t develop RA until I was in my 30s.<\/p>\n The doctors were determined to prevent my suicide and worked with me to overcome those thoughts and feelings. I can\u2019t help but wonder if I ever need to go into the hospital again, will I be treated the same way now that I am in a wheelchair?<\/p>\n Maybe I would today, but what about 10 years from now, when my disability is even more severe? What about 20 years from now?<\/p>\n Now, if someone is actively suicidal, they can be placed in a mental hospital, even against their will, and given treatment. A person can also voluntarily seek treatment for suicidal feelings.<\/p>\n The existence of euthanasia and assisted suicide makes my struggles harder.<\/p>\n Every time I read a story about a disabled person who was euthanized in another country, it hurts me on a personal level. It makes me angry that people didn\u2019t see the value in their life.<\/p>\n It makes me afraid that others won\u2019t see the value of mine.<\/p>\n Sometimes it makes me wonder if my life really\u00a0does\u00a0have value. If so many people believe that a person like me isn\u2019t worth keeping alive, maybe I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n The sanction given to disabled people\u2019s suicides confirms my deepest fears- that I\u2019m not valuable or important, that I\u2019m not worthy of life. Resisting these dark feelings can be hard when I\u2019m in the depths of depression.<\/p>\n Depression lies to you.<\/p>\n It distorts your thinking. It tells you you aren\u2019t deserving of help or love. It tells you, you are worthless. It tells you no one cares.<\/p>\n The existence of assisted suicide reinforces these lies.<\/p>\n When I\u2019m already struggling with suicidal feelings and consider killing myself through assisted suicide, it feels like society has given me permission to do so. It sends the message that suicide is a reasonable answer to my depression, physical condition, and pain.<\/p>\n This makes my suicidal feelings stronger.<\/p>\n Assisted suicide affects disabled people just by being available to other disabled people.<\/p>\n I am now a disability rights activist in the fight against euthanasia and assisted suicide.\u00a0Not Dead Yet<\/a>\u00a0is an organization of disabled people that sees the threat inherent in legalizing assisted suicide.<\/p>\n I found supportive people when I became involved in the pro-life movement. Specifically, the wing that holds to the\u00a0consistent life ethic.<\/a><\/p>\n The consistent life ethic is a philosophy that all human life is valuable, and that killing, unless (some woul add) in extreme cases of self-defense, is always wrong. Those who adhere to this ethic oppose war, the death penalty, euthanasia, and abortion.<\/p>\n Any threat to human life is something to oppose.<\/p>\n The people I\u2019ve met through my activism value the lives of disabled people. They value my life. I\u2019ve made the best friends I\u2019ve ever had among my fellow activists. They are (peaceful) warriors who fight alongside me against the ethic that devalues lives like mine.<\/p>\n I am grateful to have found a community of friends who value all lives, even disabled ones, and grateful that so many people are with me when I speak up for the value of my life and other disabled people\u2019s.<\/p>\n We deserve suicide prevention, not suicide assistance.<\/p>\n We deserve to be treated the same way as able-bodied people by the medical community.<\/p>\n We need to continue\u00a0advocating<\/a>\u00a0for ourselves and others.<\/p>\n ========================<\/p>\n For more of our posts on this topic, see:<\/p>\n Figuring out Euthanasia<\/a>: What Does it Really Mean?<\/p>\n Life-Affirming Doctors<\/a><\/p>\n When \u201cChoice\u201d Itself Hurts the Quality of Life\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n #SayHisName: The Medical Murder of Michael Hickson<\/a><\/p>\n How Euthanasia and Poverty Threaten the Disabled\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n What\u2019s Cruel for the Incarcerated is Cruel for the Terminally Ill<\/a><\/p>\n Will I be Treated the Same Way Now?<\/a><\/p>\n A Lawyer\u2019s Turnaround on Baby Doe with Her Own Down Syndrome Baby<\/a><\/p>\n Will for Life \u2013 Double Down<\/a><\/p>\n by Tara Zoe Roshe (pen name), republished with permission from her Medium blog I am a disabled woman with\u00a0rheumatoid arthritis, a disease that attacks the joints. I use a walker or a wheelchair in my daily life but was able-bodied a short 10 years ago. Over the past few years, my physical condition has… <\/p>\nDoctors and the value of disabled peoples\u2019 lives<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A disabled person is given suicide advice, not suicide prevention<\/strong><\/h3>\n
My own struggles with suicide<\/strong><\/h3>\n
If I seek treatment in the future, will doctors encourage me to live or help me die?<\/p>\nFinding allies<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"