Alternet: Ann Neumann’s Disingenuous Complaints About the State of the Euthanasia Debate

There’s a fresh piece from Ann Neumann on Alternet, bemoaning the way the euthanasia debate in the UK – and here in the US – has become another aspect of the “Culture Wars.” 

As mentioned in an earlier post, there has been a flood of pro-euthanasia coverage in the UK.  It’s even got Ann Neumann, who is pretty much a zealot on the subject, rolling her eyes a bit.

Here’s an excerpt from What Britain’s Assisted Suicide Should Teach Us:

All this attention on the issue of assisted suicide has made for some widely-read and sensational news.  But, as Peter Beresford blogs at the Guardian today, the war over assisted suicide has done little to address the practical, non-contentious issues surrounding assisted suicide.

What would those issues be and who would speak about them?  Well, Neumann has ideas on that – and read carefully to note just who she leaves out:

When you’re in a culture war, there is no DMZ.  And everybody is an “independent advocate.”  Who do you ask for that safe space?  The government?  The media?  The church?  The medical profession?  Because other end of life care issues have been framed into the assisted suicide debate, they can’t be addressed in a rational, meaningful way.  Is the solution increased public education?  A broader coalition for patients’ right?

(She also blames a lot of the discourse on well-funded “pro-life” groups, as though the membership of pro-euthanasia organizations consisted of poor people on public assistance instead of affluent members of society giving hefty cash donations.)

Anyway, if you’re here and you’re reading this – it’s obvious who she left out.  Disability advocates and activists – in the US and the UK – oppose legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.  The “practical” issues she and Beresford refer to are exactly the economic, social and support factors that disability advocates constantly bring up as being central to any discussion of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

And Neumann already knows this – or she should.  She found her way to Bill Peace’s Bad Cripple blog last month, but shied away from engaging from the critique of her initial attacks on what she termed “slippery slope” arguments on the blog.  Not long after that, she announced the news of the Disability and Health Journal Issue on Assisted Suicide on her own blog.

So she knows that disability activists and advocates are out there, talking about the “practical” things.  The trouble is, we think legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia is bad policy. 

In other words, she’s fostering and promoting the very polarization that she bemoans.  Maybe it’s because she really isn’t sorry that assisted suicide is seen as a “culture wars” issue after all.

She’s wrong about that DMZ – we live in it.  And neither the pro-euthanasia activists nor the highly political “pro-life” organizations want to acknowledge our place in the debate, because we’d distract from their Culture War.  Neither side really sees people with disabilities as having a place in their respective cultures, so it’s easy to marginalize us – and both sides do it with abandon and ease.

I hate ending on a sour note like this.  If you want a solid reality check on what is going on in the UK, please check out the newest column from Disability Bitch.  DB’s column generally revolves around what and who she hates – just about everyone and everything (although with an admitted soft spot for fellow bitch Heather Mills).

Things are bad indeed in the UK – so bad that the DB’s column this week announces that “Disability Bitch Loves Life”:

(referring to her “no-legged friend”):

Yesterday, he told me I would have to wait until he’d finished reading about the new crippled actress in Coronation Street before he’d get me dinner.

That was enough. “I’m hurting here,” I told him. “Have some compassion.”

“OK,” he said. “Would you like me to smother you to death with a pillow?”

Goodness. It took a moment’s thought. “No,” I said, “but it would be great if you could pass me some ibuprofen.”

He looked surprised but, eventually, shuffled off to the kitchen to get my supplies, checking I only wanted two anti-inflammatory capsules and not, you know, two hundred.

It seems a good moment to reiterate that I LOVE LIFE. I don’t normally bother saying such things, but then, people have been stating the obvious a lot lately. Only a few days ago, I heard someone from a pro life campaign group telling ITV news, “Killing people is illegal.” It seems the world needs reminding of these simple things.

So, for the sake of clarity: I’m Disability Bitch, and I do hate the world and everything in it, but I don’t want to die anytime soon. It’s no surprise my No-Legged mate thinks I might want to glide off this mortal coil sooner rather than later. The thing is, I don’t. I quite like being here. 

 

If you examine the current British news agenda, you’d think this is a rare emotion for someone disabled and living in pain. See, every single major news story relating to disabled people in the last month or so has been on the subject of voluntary euthanasia, culminating in this week’s headline that, several years ago, veteran BBC journalist Ray Gosling admitted publicly to killing a lover who was dying of AIDS. We know because he announced as much on a BBC regional documentary filmed several months ago which was only broadcast this week.

Call me old fashioned, but I’d always assumed that if I mentioned to my employer that I once deliberately suffocated someone, they might, y’know, call the police and report the event. Instead, the so called mercy killings of terminally ill or disabled people have become humdrum with him talking openly about it in radio and TV slots the next day. At time of writing, Mr Gosling has been arrested on suspicion of murder. 

That’s just an excerpt.  Read the rest here.

I’d like to see the situation improve, but when you consider the combined efforts of the media, pro-euthanasia lobbyists, and the religious advocates – none of whom seem inclined to point to the relevance of disability advocates in this debate – I’m afraid the poor Bitch may have to remind people that she really loves life in the future.  –Stephen Drake