A recent post in GD about the Schiavo case was criticized as being from a right-wing site. I wasn't familiar with that site but I am familiar with disability activism sites and at NotDeadYet.org, I found this article from
The Nation, which, as we all know, is not a right wing publication. It's a good starting point for people to learn about the viewpoint of disability activists.
This article is by Laura Hershey, an author and activist who has also had articles published in
Ms. magazine and
The Progressive, among many magazines, journals, and anthologies. Ms. Hershey is disabled herself and on the board of directors of Not Dead Yet!, a national disability rights organization opposed to legalizing assisted suicide, euthanasia, and medical discrimination, all critical issues for the disabled community. Ms. Hershey states that Terri Schiavo died not from her 1990 brain injury but because of
prejudice, the common assumption that life with a significant disability is not worth living.Quotes from the article (bolding added):
Schiavo's mental limitations were indeed severe, though I reject terms like "vegetative" to describe any human being. Her environmental restrictions were less apparent to some observers--but not to me, because my quality of life depends on supports that Schiavo didn't have. My wheelchair gets me out into the world, while hers sat broken and unused. She was essentially institutionalized; in contrast, I live in my own home, where I supervise the attendants who feed, shower and dress me. My loved ones understand my values and will advocate for my rights together if ever I can't speak for myself. Schiavo became the object of a family feud.
Finally, I still get to use the ventilator, which helps me stay alive and healthy, while a court order denied Schiavo her feeding tube. What a difference, physically and politically, a simple plastic tube can make!
My mechanical ventilation device sits on the back of my wheelchair, or near my bed. From it emerges a plastic tube with a mask that fits over my nose. When I inhale, the machine pumps air into my weakened lungs to deepen my breath. A feeding tube is even more basic--it's like a flexible drinking straw through which food is poured into a healed hole in the abdomen. My friend and poker pal Carrie uses a tube like this for most of her meals, and for an occasional shot of Scotch.We view these devices as routine, unremarkable--not as some creepy, futuristic cyborg taking over our bodily functions. Yet some courts brand feeding tubes and ventilators as "life support." That label puts us in a different legal category, with less reason to live and fewer rights. I call that discrimination.http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050502/hershey
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