UK: Paralyzed Teacher Says She’s Not Selfish for Wanting to Live

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In the U.K., assisted suicide advocates are pushing their case again. Two publicized cases have brought this issue to the fore. The article linked and discussed here is mostly concerned with press coverage of the death of Daniel James, a young rugby player who had tetraplegia after an accident. James’ parents took him to Switzerland, where he committed suicide with the help of the group Dignitas. For further information and discussion on Daniel James, I recommend the pieces written by William Peace at Bad Cripple. His article on Daniel James can be found here and here.

The press coverage of Daniel James has alarmed one woman, at least.

From the Liverpool Daily Post:

A PARALYSED Merseyside teacher has spoken of her anger that the growing public sympathy for assisted suicide means she is now seen as ‘selfish’ for wanting to carry on living.

Sue Garner-Jones last night criticised the way seriously disabled people who choose to end their lives are commonly described as ‘courageous’ and ‘selfless’.

Dr Garner-Jones has urged her MP, Southport’s John Pugh – himself a vocal opponent of euthanasia – to lead a campaign in support of people with spinal cord injuries who want to battle on with their lives.

What is she complaining about, you might ask? She has an answer for you:

Yesterday, Dr Garner-Jones told the Daily Post: “People make their own decisions about how to live their life. But there’s a lot of talk about bravery and courage for people who were opting out of living their lives. I didn’t like the inverse of that.

“To call this action ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘selfless’ implies that those of us who battle on are ‘cowardly’ and ‘selfish’, which is unfair and untrue.”

Dr Garner-Jones, 53, was paralysed from the chest down and has limited use of only her left hand after a lorry ploughed into her car 34-years-ago.

As mentioned at the top of this post, Dr. Garner-Jones asked her MP to take up her cause in Parliament. He did.

Echoing Dr Garner-Jones, Dr Pugh warned: “The proposals involve an individual regarding their life as intolerable, worthless, unbearable or lacking in human dignity – and the state endorsing that choice.” (emphasis added)

Thank you, Dr. Garner-Jones. –Stephen Drake

Washington State Voters Pass Assisted Suicide Referendum

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Most people who check this blog out will already know that Washington State’s referendum (I-1000) to legalize assisted suicide passed. There are lots of reasons that this happened – a popular ex-governor with lots of money adopted passage as a personal cause, out-of-state money from PACs and individual supporters came in staggering amounts.

The key to figuring out how to prevent this playing out in other states, IMO, is to avoid whining about perceived unfairness in press coverage, financial resources, etc.

The real work lies in figuring out what coalitions have done right in other states (e.g. Hawaii, California, Maine, Michigan, etc.) and what went wrong with efforts in this state.

Hopefully, I’ll have some insights from members of the coalition soon. I thought I’d be able to share something today that was posted on another blog, but is appears to have vanished.

More later… –Stephen Drake

Class warfare – out-of-state rich people fund Washington State Assisted Suicide Initiative

assisted suicide, class warfare, Our News & Commentary Blog, Washington state

This election year has brought money into sharp focus for many people in the USA. We’ve all seen how the greedy and unregulated behavior of some of the richest corporations have succeeded in bringing our whole economy to near-collapse.

Money has also been a topic when it comes to the presidential campaigns. Barack Obama amassed a huge war chest, but unlike most candidates, his war chest has relied heavily on relatively small donations from individual donors – many giving in amounts less than 100 dollars. In any case, donations to presidential candidates are limited to 2300 dollars per individual.

When it comes to campaigns for a referendum, however, there are no donation limits. In Washington State, the people pushing for legalization of assisted suicide have managed to build a much larger war chest than the opposition. But it isn’t coming from small donors and a lot of it isn’t even coming from within the state.

Columnist Joel Connelly writes:

Out-of-state donors have given life to the campaign for assisted suicide.

Judy Sebba, an educator at the University of Sussex in England, gave $253,555. Loren Parks, a Nevada businessman, put in $250,000. Compassion in Choices, based in Denver, has given $185,000. Oregon Death with Dignity put in $100,000.

A Compassion & Choices political action committee turned over $626,500 to the campaign — all of it from out of state. Andrew Ross, described as a Columbus, Ohio, inventor, put in $400,000.

If ever there was a time to ask if the rich have the interests of the rest of us at heart, now is the time. What do these rich people get out of this? It isn’t their state. At a time when people lack access to health care, are facing foreclosure on their homes, and loss of their jobs, this is what these “compassionate” individuals are choosing as their favorite charity – a campaign to make it easy for old, ill and disabled people to commit suicide.

I think it’s fair it ask what they expect to get out of this and just what kind of agendas they have. –Stephen Drake

More on this from Wesley Smith.

Migraines really screw up my work schedule

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Apologies for the unannounced and unplanned hiatus here.

I had a totally uplanned migraine that lasted for over a week, resulting in lots of unplanned moaning in bed in a dark room. It lasted for over a week – and was still with me when I had to drive to Toronto to catch a flight to Winnipeg for the National Symposium on Death Making, which was put together by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. (more on the conference later)

A merciful palliative care physician at the conference helped me out with some alternative medication which successfully ended the ordeal. I will be talking to my own physician about having a back-up medication when my primary medication fails. –Stephen Drake

Catching Up: McCain Gives Us Fair Warning on Medicare and Medicaid Cuts

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There are other ways to promote the premature deaths of old, ill and disabled people other than assisted suicide, euthanasia, and “futility” policies. One way is to chop away at their health care.

From the Wall Street Journal:

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.

The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan “budget neutral,” as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.

John McCain arrives at a town-hall meeting Friday at Colorado State University. In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.

But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain’s senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.

To be fair, the McCain camp claims this will be done through getting rid of fraud and waste and improving services to those who depend on Medicare and Medicaid:

Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the Medicare and Medicaid changes would improve the programs and eliminate fraud, but he didn’t detail where the cuts would come from. “It’s about giving them the benefit package that has been promised to them by law at lower cost,” he said.

I think most people would find it pretty doubtful that you can cut 1.3 trillion dollars from Medicaid and Medicare even if you eliminated all fraud and waste. Unless, of course, you start redefining “waste.”

However this election turns out, disability advocates and activists will have our hands full. We’re in the midst a financial meltdown, record deficits, declines in tax revenue, etc. We should all be justifiably concerned about the very real danger that government and society will find new justifications to save money by cutting resources to segments of the population perceived as “nonproductive.”

At the very least, this economy will provide plenty of encouragement for increased promotion and implementation of “futile care” policies. I’m curious to see if the economic drivers behind these policies become more openly discussed in the new reality. –Stephen Drake