Tired of Coping, Fed-up with Modern Medicine: Why the Long-term Chronically Ill and Disabled Should Have the Option to Die with Dignity
Disability activists aim to create an environment in which disabled people are able to value themselves just as they are, as individuals endowed with extraordinary bodies, exceptional gifts, and unique insight. There are some, however, whose specific type of disease or impairment(s) makes it nearly impossible to reframe illness or disability in positive terms, no matter how much attention is given to social reengineering, legislative reform, or attitudinal modification. Although most disability activists oppose euthanasia, the author explains why a commitment to core humanist moral principles entails offering a dignified means to die to any who, without regard for proximity to death, are nearing the threshold of just how much pain or loss of bodily integrity they can bear.