Disability Arts Online

Marisha Bonar

Sorry as I already commented on the 07th of July.....but wish to be more honest about why I'm so divided in my own feelings about this subject......For me, every case is unique.

Sorry as well for this boring and personal story, still wish to express my Feelings:

This touches really me a lot.....

Most Members of my own Family -on my Mother's side- were murdered by the fucking nazi's -CAN'T , DON'T wish to write nazi in Capital Letters!!!!!-. My own Mother was 1 year in a concentration camp, and 1 month away from being transported to Auschwitz. She, even now, remembers every single detail, and was only a kid when she was taken in one of those beautiful trains there.....

Yes, the nazi's exterminated many many many Disabled People.....but/and in my own opinion, created so many many many Disabled People as well, impaired Children, Woman, Man, for the remaining of their days ...... I can just see/feel that in the very little that remains of my own Family,the ones who just survived.....I saw some of my Family with the numbers on their arms....Some wished they didn't survived .... My Mother has been ordered by a judge to be internalized in a psychiatric hospital, where she is letting herself die, and I can't do anything to stop her. Even if I've tried ,and I believe that I've tried my best(??????), at the end of the day, who am'I to tell her anything???It's Her wish,Her choice. My Grandfather commited Suicide as well......YES, assisted suicide-NOT in Dignitas, but through the Black Market in Hungary- as he was left paralysed and could NOT move to do it himself.He would have.

All my Respect to ALL of them !!!!!!

Sorry for getting so personal.....or should I be sorry for sharing this????

Marisha =^.^=

For ALL of those who are against Suicide/assisted

Suicide......Might be you/we should only try for a second to put ourselves in their skins???????

Olivia James, sister of Daniel James

Let me start by saying that i think you and anyone who sees any humour in your vulgar cartoon is sick and nasty!For me and im sure many other people will agree this is the difference between yourself and my brother as individuals. Either able bodied or disabled he would never make fun of anyone or their families in a truly tragic situation. Its people like you who give a very poor perception of people with disabilities. We have not and will not make it our place to give our opinions on how other people should live their lives or how they choose to end it. Ultimately they are the only ones who have the right to choose. How is it that if your life is so happy and fulfilled you need to spend your days creating twisted cartoons thats lets face majority of people would not find remotely funny!i would really like to know how you are supporting disabled with this kind of micky taking behaviour?!There is absolubtely no camparison between you and my brother as you are a disgrace to any human being with a heart.

sanda

In haste last comment, I forgot to say how much I like the cartoon with the letter.

I shall visit all the art and blogs. One by one, as can. Thanks for your welcome.

Jodie

Protesters who scream 'EUGENICS', 'Nazi sympathiser' everytime the euthanasia debate is raised are doing the cause more harm than good imo. When you see someone you love slowly die in pain it can give you a different perspective. If a loved one asked me to help them I would say Yes (out of love and respect for them) and deal with the legal ramifications at a later date. If I had to go to jail for my beliefs then so be it.

Crippen

Hi Sanda,

thanks for logging on and sharing your web site information. Hope you'll become a regular visitor. Kind regards, Crippen

Stephen Drake

To Liz:

Lots of people at any given time want to kill themselves. Many who do would love the opportunity to get approval for it and to have someone make sure they don't screw it up.

Unless we're offering this "help" and approval to *everyone* who is serious about killing themselves, it's really not about respect or choice.

As long as it's a "right" only given to old, ill and disabled people it looks a lot more like "culling the herd." --Stephen

Alison Davis

If Tom Shakespeare were right about "choice" being pre-eminent, I would not be here now. Some years ago, I wanted to die - a settled wish that lasted 10 years. Had assisted suicide or euthanasia been available then I would have requested death. I would have qualified under the criteria for assisted suicide because as well as several disabling conditions, at that time doctors thought (wrongly as it turned out) that I was terminally ill. Sometimes our "choices" are wrong. To suggest otherwise is to conclude that it wouldn't have mattered much if I had died then, even though, as it turned out, the best of my life still lay ahead in the future.

Colin Hambrook

The issues around assisted suicide are incredibly complex. One of the barriers to a rounded debate is that there are no positive images in the media of disabled people living with complex impairment needs. The lack of a real sense of power and control over our lives is a problem that society continually puts in our path as disabled people. Decisions are in the hands of professionals all the way down the line and so often there is such a lack of consultation. On the other hand though we, as a movement, do not have the moral right to deny people the choice of assisted suicide if that is their wish. There are no simplistic answers. We need more accountability from within the medical profession. Fundamentally it is a debate about the value of human life and the arguement about assisted suicide impacts on

arguments about the moral right to impose war. We need more objective open debate than the kind of demonising of individuals for not having beliefs that concur absolutely with our own.

Stephen Drake

Have you been reading the same news I have? The parade of nonterminally ill people going to Dignitas to die with "dignity"? The feigned shock (shades of Casblanca) from Dying with Dignity and bioethicists when an analysis came out a few weeks ago elaborating on the obvious? Did you notice how easily the public shrugged off the suicide of Daniel James as pretty much the same thing as someone dying finding "dignity" in death?

I would like to know what you think about the euthanasia advocates' willingness to conflate disability and terminal illness? -Stephen Drake

Colin Revell

Do you remember the 'Nazi Eugenic Programme and Nazi 'Disability' Holocaust?..... Do you really trust others with making the right decisions of who should have assistive dying/suicide and that our lives will not be commodified and decisions will be based on 'Who's Life Is Unworthy? What about the 'poor'?

The 'grassroots' Disabled Peoples' 'movement can build on this victory for 'assistive-living!!!

Tom Shakespeare

I think this petition is fundamentally misconceived. Disability activists should not be seeking to deny terminally ill people choice at the end of life. Surveys show that the majority of disabled people do not oppose assisted suicide. Nor are disabled people at risk of being coerced into death. Disability rights is about having control over your life, and if terminally ill, over the time and manner of your death. That's what "choices and rights" means. Not just "we support your choices as long as we agree with them"