Disability Futures

Of course it is personal, I tell him.  It's about our lives, the lives of my children, the lives of members of my community.  We're here to debate the worth of our lives and argue that we must be assisted to live before we're assisted to die. 

He doesn't understand.  I can see it in his eyes.  Why would you want to die?  Who would make you die if it was against your will?  My eyes meet the eyes of another woman, and she patiently explains more.  Slowly, carefully.  But still he looks confused.

We're trying to cram a thousand complex messages into twelve minutes worth of sound bites, and it's impossible. 

'It's not possible to explain that the concept of 'intolerable suffering' in the legislation is flawed, because half of us live in poverty, are victims of abuse, have no access to care and support - our 'intolerable suffering' comes often not from our disabilities but from external sources.  We don't have time to explain the concepts of ableism and how daily discrimination impacts upon our lives and often causes our deaths.  Or how we often want to die because our lives are of such poor quality - although mental health conditions are outlawed under the legislation, most of us experience poor mental health as a consequence of marginalisation.   

Our degenerative disabilities make us eligible for a fast path to the grave, despite the careful weasel wording in the Bill - all disabilities arise from a 'medical condition'.  And they will absolutely not understand that their 'safeguards' are meaningless to us - their trusted medical professionals are often our executioners because of their perceptions of our 'quality of life'.  We are switched off in hospitals every month.'