Crippen's Blog

Comments

10 February 2010

Bob Williams-Findlay

Since the 1990s, mainly due to both Mike Oliver and Colin Barnes, I've had to question the value of the "Rights" agenda. Why should a 'right to die' have anymore credibility than the right not to live in a disablist, capitalist society run by a Parliament full of greedy, self-centred political hacks? The answer is obvious - the former doesn't threaten the existing social relations.

Those who support 'a right to die' focus on those who are able to articulate their desires; so it's tough ***t on those who may be "mentally confused" or unable to express a choice. So, it is a "right" for those with the ability to exercise it - blends well into dominant disablist culture, does it not?

8 February 2010

Sanda Aronson

This "exercise" is a CFS/ME illustration. I hit the enter key a second before I realized that I didn't put in the number code - so it got vanished/disappeared.

CFS/ME has cognitive stuff, as my comments on other articles sometimes illustrates.

I found this blog (and I like the cartoon, and it makes my eyes water with sadness) via www.notdeadyet.org link.

I spent 8 years horizontal with CFS/ME. I'm some better, but 98 or 99 percent homebound and my infrequent trips out require use of a wheelchair due to the illness. I could only tolerate some bits of the articles about the murder (I call it that) of the young woman with ME.

As an atheist Jew, I relate to the history Crippen adds in the article. As a person with cognitive glitches due to CFS/ME, I am a "two fer" of sorts.

Because I was welcomed by the disability community before I had a medical diagnosis, I identify with people with all kinds of disabilities. When I realized I was disabled, not "getting well", I began a letter network for professional artists with disabilities in April, 1985. My caregiver, called "carer" in England, is my spouse. I'm online two years. I am aware of ME in England. Greg Crowhurst of A Carer's Blog is in England and I met his wife, my friend, via the internet.

CFS/ME is a nasty illness with a range of disability. I can't post an image yet...

slow learning due CFS/ME. CFS is the name in the US, chronic fatigue syndrome,which itself is a political decision. Google Hillary Johnson's op ed piece in the NYTimes on October 21, 2009 about that. On both sides of the Atlantic, we are "dissed"...

Some of my art (I do art as can, including political art) is on a group website, nonprofit, small group of artists, started by two;

www.artistlightbox.com/sandaaronson

3 February 2010

pink pjs

I watched the Panorama programme which gave the story of Lynn and her mother and I did feel a great deal of sympathy for both of them. However, I feel that the current legal situation is dangerous along with the apparent focus on euthanasia as 'mercy killing'.

What I would like to see is a focus on what can be done to improve healthcare, treatments, social care etc. to improve the quality of life for people faced with painful and degenerative conditions and much better support for those who care for them and for both, this support should focus as much on emotional support as medical and practical help as it seems that, as much as anything, what lead to this situation where death and effectively, murder, seemed the only option, was despair, isolation and hopelessness.

What seems to be a huge problem is a lack of real community in developed countries and community responsibility which appears to be leading to a feeling that if people cannot 'live independently' then their lives are not worth living.

2 February 2010

Nabil Shaban

In 1997, a theatre company I was working for, asked me for ideas for a play. I suggested a play about a group of disabled terrorists (or freedom fighters, depending on which side you're on) called D.A.R.E. (Disabled Anarchist Revolutionary Enclave) who use military action against anyone or organisation promoting eugenics, genetic cleansing and euthanasia. This was fiction. The BMA, the Government, the BBC and other media...and people like Terry Prat-Shit are lucky D.A.R.E. is only fiction.... However, if we disabled people feel our lives are being threatened by the increasingly Nazified State, then eventually the question may arise as to whether disabled people should follow the example of such militant groups as the ANC (African National Congress...President Mandela's one time "terrorist organisation.

Me personally, I try to be a pacifist. I don't believe in advocating violence...unlike our governments who prefer violence and war as a means of solving their problems. But the fact remains...if we disabled people feel threatened, have we not the right to defend ourselves? It is clear The Government is in favour of "Assisted Suicide"...I knew this would be the next step on the road to removing disabled people from the face of the earth, when Thatcher's government passed the Fertilization and Embryology Bill in 1988, where it was no longer a criminal offense for disabled foetuses to be aborted that reached full-term i.e. 9 months...unlike non-disabled foetuses. So, already for over 20 years, there has been one rule for destroying us, and another for saving them.

2 February 2010

Crippen

Another good link has popped up on the subject - http://accessibility.net.nz/blog/opposing-the-legalisation-of-physician-assisted-suicide/

2 February 2010

Arty Farty

This debate needs more air time with a more balanced hearing. The BBC are giving masses of air time to Pratchett but minutes to those disabled people who want to respond like Jane Campbell. Send the link for this blog to all your contacts. Don't let them sweep us under the carpet.

2 February 2010

Linda Burnip - FaceBook

there is os much unexplained in that case, it is really quite frightening.

2 February 2010

Shaun Johnson - FaceBook

Good article, I find it incredibly disturbing that there hasn't been any sort of outcry about the girl with ME being killed by her mum. The implication throughout is that her life wasn't worth living so she was better off dead. But why wasn't she receiving any help or support? As you say, why on earth was she 'bed ridden' for over 17 years? If it is okay to kill people with ME, is anyone safe?

2 February 2010

Jackie Softly - FaceBook

so true Dave. I'm always torn when I read or hear about the 'voluntary euthanasia ' debate. On the one hand I understand the anguish of people who want to choose for themselves when to end the suffering; on the other I'm filled with fear at the thought of what could happen to my son and so many others if the community decided (as has happened in the past) that his life isn't worth living.

2 February 2010

Clair Lewis

I agree with everything you have said. I am against assisted suicide because so many disabled people are left feeling they have no choice because of neglect. Many of us feel suicidal now an again.