By Anthony Barich
A PERTH-based disability advocate with quadriplegia has founded a new online blog to unite people with disabilities or chronic illness against euthanasia legislation that could put such people at risk.
Wanneroo author Dr Erik Leipoldt, who last year published Euthanasia and Disability Perspective: An Investigation in The Netherlands and Australia, convened the blog called ProLiving – a Disability perspective on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) late last month with a group of other like-minded people.
The site warns that there are no safeguards against the abuse of legalised euthanasia and PAS.
The site’s creators wrote to the SA Lower House on 4 April on the euthanasia Bill currently before Parliament as “a disability voice on end-of-life issues has been largely absent in Australia”, which has led to euthanasia advocates dominating public dialogue on the issue and presuming to speak for them.
The site was launched after euthanasia advocates rushed a Bill through the second reading stage of South Australia’s Parliament. The Bill inserts an amendment to the crime of homicide, creating a defence for medical practitioners and those who assist them (including nurses) in either killing the patient or providing the means for the patient to commit suicide.Tackling the euthanasia lobby’s main arguments about people living with “intolerable suffering”, Dr Leipoldt and his associates said that the disability voice has been largely absent because:
– “It is hard to argue that each of us possesses equal human worth to anyone else, when society still widely views us as inferior. Notably, government itself has styled this state of affair as one of social apartheid.
– “It is hard to argue because many of those things that we live with daily involve the sort of intimate care and support that many euthanasia proponents try to escape.
– “We don’t experience indignity when receiving good support. Euthanasia proponents cannot conceive of that.
– “It is hard to be heard when our perceived ‘quality of life’ is painted as unbearable, while we want to live life.
– “It is hard to be heard when your disability involves cognitive impairment, isolation and marginalisation, especially while we know that euthanasia supporters want to do away with such experiences of life by ending it.
– “It is hard to argue as, when we argue for the fair share of control, self-determination or autonomy that society withholds from us in trying to live our lives, euthanasia proponents use exactly those points in arguing for a right to die which, in our case, might become an obligation.
– “It is hard to be heard when disability advocacy has been unsupported, its funding slashed by the same government that might now sanction killing for reason of ‘intolerable ‘suffering.’
Dr Leipoldt’s site warns that “undoubtedly illegal intentional ending of life where life is considered not worth living in our healthcare institutions is happening today”, but “we believe that the answer to this situation is to pay attention to better quality and safeguards in care and safeguards against abuse, not to sanction medically assisted suicide by legalising it”.
The site’s creators urge governments to engage the reality of disabilities and proper care because “currently, the debate is driven by polls that ask quick, simplistic questions on complex issues involving end of life support”.
“A variety of ways of engaging with those realities must be explored, in the interests of a meaningful debate and ongoing safeguard to human wellbeing. No legislation should be passed on uninformed, uneducated assumptions,” it says.
The site was created to illustrate that “it is a matter of social justice for the status of people with disabilities in our society to be duly considered in (any euthanasia legislation)”.
“We are concerned that euthanasia and PAS legislation may be introduced in this country that allows the intentional shortening of life, including on grounds that life with disability is not worth living.” This statement is intended as a public resource for those who wish to learn more about why people with disability are especially vulnerable to State-sanctioned euthanasia. The site is intended for people to educate politicians and others who influence such legislation and the availability of good quality care and support.