More on Brignell Column From William Peace at Bad Cripple

Just today, William Peace at Bad Cripple wrote his own thoughts in regard to Victoria Brignell’s column on assisted suicide, which I responded to yesterday.

Peace takes on a different part of the essay by Brignell and provides a long analysis of some issues that triggered his own thought processes. Here’s the introduction:

What I want to address is the questions Brignell posed with regard to assisted suicide and social change. Brignell points out that social practices evolve quickly and wonders “Could we reach a point where it is regarded as normal for a tetraplegic [quadriplegia] person to commit suicide? And as the population ages and pressure on social care services grow, could the authorities regard legalising assisted death for severely disabled people as a convenient means of reducing the demand on an increasingly tight care budget? It seems unlikely such a dystopian vision will turn into reality in the near future”. Brignell’s assessment may be correct in the UK but I think we have already arrived at this dystopian vision in the United States and elsewhere.

That’s just the intro. There’s a lot more and it’s well worth anyone’s time to read – anyone who cares about these topics. –Stephen Drake