Writing in the [UK] Times about the case of Dan James, Libby Purves says the public should offer assistance to those who wish to die rather than face living with a severe disability. An excerpt:

The humane creed of disability rights, with its vocabulary of challenges and being “differently abled”, may have a less helpful side-effect. It may blind us to the utter, visceral awfulness of confronting a major disability, especially when young. As civilized people we do not allow ourselves to flinch at a half-wrecked body in a wheelchair; yet the flinch and the fear are still there inside.

… we should not prattle on about fulfilling lives, Paralympians, Stephen Hawking and the rest if it makes us belittle the terror and self-disgust of a fit young person, paralyzed. No amount of pious wittering about the Disability Community should blind us to that psychological impact.

… never for a second should the rest of us take shallow comfort — or rush to condemnation — by lightly assuming that every new victim should stay the course and mutate into a cheerful paralympian or a saintly philosopher. It’s very, very hard.

See also:

Suicide law campaigner backs parents of Daniel James — [UK] Independent

Parents of Daniel James backed by moral philosopher Baroness Warnock — [UK] Telegraph

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 4:38 pm and is filed under euthanasia/mercy killing, international. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post