Disability²

Convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian was freed from prison yesterday after serving only eight years for the murder of Thomas Youk, and serving no time for the murder of at least 130 other individuals, mostly women, with disabilities. While most convicted murderers, particularly those suspected of mass murder spend the remainder of their life behind bars, if not sentenced to death, Kevorkian, was never even charged in most of the deaths, because his victims were disabled. This is disability discrimination at its core.

Yet, many Americans don’t get it. Progressives, people I generally agree with politically and ideologically, remain unable to grasp how their quest to live life without experiencing disability trods on my civil and human rights. Yesterday, after Kevorkian’s release, columnist Russell Shaw, a Huffington Post blogger, has a post entitled Disability Advocates, Get Over Your Fear of Us Right-To-Die Folks.

Shaw states:

From where I sit, I don’t see how compassion in dying has anything to do with disability rights. For those of us who want to offer dignity to those whose pain can no longer be nursed, the fact that our society too often treats the disabled as second-class citizens also is a powerful assault on our humane sensitivities.

Mr. Shaw continues to trivialize our opposition to assisted suicide as a “paranoid” fear that non-disabled people simply want to have us killed.

The problem with assisted suicide is that if I, as a pwd, were to become depressed and ask to die, I could get assistance to do so, solely because of my disability. Depression wouldn’t affect my intelligence, I could very convincingly make a case for death, and I am certain that my decision would not be questioned by physicians. I am doubtful that I would be given treatment for depression, instead, I would be allowed to die.

In Oregon, home of Mr. Shaw, and the only state with legalized assisted suicide, I could get Medicaid coverage to pay the costs of my physician assisted death, but not for the attendant care that I need to live a happy and productive life. My ability to obtain the drugs that enable me to control pain, and minimize some of the effects of my disability is severely curtailed in Oregon. Under these circumstances, the “choice” to die is much less of a choice.

I have had medical professionals suggest that I should simply “give up” and “let nature run its course,” rather than use technology to continue my life. I’ve had policymakers tell me that the cost of my attendant care prevent young children from being vaccinated, and that the cost of my attendant care prevents teenage mothers from accessing prenatal care. Fortunately I live in a state where policymakers listen to the disability community, and we have managed to preserve community based services for people with severe disabilities. The same is not true in Oregon.

That is why assisted suicide scares me. It’s much cheaper to offer me death than attendant care, and that would be my option in your beautiful state.

Guarantee that I will continue to have access to health care, community based attendant care, and the drugs, including the latest pain pharmacology and technology, and then I might be less afraid of right-to-die advocates.

Your right to have a state-sanctioned, medical establishment proctored death, interferes with my ability to keep on living. If I can’t access heath care and attendant care, I don’t have a choice to live. You, meanwhile, always have the option to die, it just might not be as pretty as you would like.

Many right-to-die advocates have attempted to distance themselves from Kevorkian, but he remains a very real threat. For years, Kevorkian produced histrionics about his fragile medical condition, and plead for a pardon or commutation of his sentence. Fortunately, his pleas were rejected.

Of course, upon his release, there was little discussion of his frail medical condition. Instead he hugged Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, the corespondent who aired his murder of Thomas Youk.

An AP article about his release, summed up Kevorkian’s continuing risk to people with disabilities in the final paragraphs:

Kevorkian has promised never to help in another assisted suicide. But Ruth Holmes, who has worked as his legal assistant and handled his correspondence while he was in prison, said his views on the subject have not changed.

“This should be a matter that is handled as a fundamental human right that is between the patient, the doctor, his family and his God,” Holmes said of Kevorkian’s beliefs.

Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian’s former attorney, said Friday that he expects Kevorkian will spend his time enjoying his freedom, even though he will be on parole until June 1, 2009.

“He’s on a short leash for the next two years,” Fieger said. “They can pretty much control his behavior. After that, it will be another story. After two years he no longer is going to be under their thumb as he is now.”

Fieger said once he’s off parole, Kevorkian should continue assisting people who want to commit suicide.

And for those who simply see disability rights advocates as shills for the right-to-life movement, I encourage you to read Diane Coleman’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee On the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. I leave you with portions of her testimony where she states:

The first thing I want to emphasize is that I’m sick and tired of the hypocrisy on both sides of the culture war in this debate. . . . I’m sick and tired of our opponents on this issue, often our liberal or progressive allies on other issues, who over simplify the dangers facing disabled people who depend on others for basic needs. . . . I’m also sick and tired of our allies on this issue, often our conservative opponents on other issues, who see assisted suicide and euthanasia as violating their principles, but see no contradiction as they slash budgets for the health care we need to survive.

Diane, I agree 100%.