In a message dated 09/10/1999 12:08:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< What do you think about assisted suicide ? >>

I have said elsewhere that I don't think our society is sufficiently advanced
to have proper regard for legalized physician assisted suicide.  We always
seem to be given the "intractable pain" scenario when asked to consider this
issue, but there is another, more insidious consideration.  May I use my own
experience as an example?

When I first became disabled, the first six months or so were a blur of
confusion, but eventually I adjusted, and adapted quite well.  As soon as I
found out about the wonderful world of wheelchairs, nothing could stop me.  I
remember being confused and a bit spacy (I progressed so quickly that I could
track the changes from week to week for a while), but really, I don't recall
ever being devastated.  It was not until I had a new boss who treated me with
open and sadistic disdain, and lost my second job, which was like a family
situation, that I became devastated.  I was suicidal for several months, and
it was the most profound experience I have ever had.  This had nothing to do
with my disability -- nothing.

I had a difficult time convincing people outside of the disability community
that this was a consequence of losing my community.  I just couldn't convince
them.  Nondisabled people are so certain that life with a disability is a
terrible thing, that their opinion would not be swayed.  There was such
little regard for the actual causal factors, that any wound that exists now
has to do with the fact that they are perfectly willing to see this happen
again to anyone.  As far as I can tell, those around me who are nondisabled,
or who are not attached to the disability community, have learned nothing.

If I had committed suicide for the purpose of making a permanent statement
about this; if I had sent a detailed letter explaining my reasons to the
Washington Post, Times, and all the major papers in the world; if I had set
myself on fire in front of the White House, I would have achieved nothing,
except to feed a misconception that I could not adjust to a disability.  They
just do not listen.

Why didn't I do it?  Well, for one thing, my immediate family has a suicide
under it's belt already.  Sometimes I lived with this agony knowing what
agony comes to a family when a member dies this way.  For another thing, by
this time, I had met people in the disability community who stuck with me;
two families are right on this list, and one is in my immediate area.  They
both ministered to me and showed me that there is a community here.  I also
had other disability resources through the Internet.  This was the time I
needed physical contact with people the most, but I knew that good people
were there, even if I couldn't touch them.  Third, I was scared to take that
final action.  I thought about ways to do it, and came up with a plan, but I
was scared to really do it.

Life is good now, but If I had suffered an injury that put me in a position
to need a doctor's help to die, that doctor just might have helped me die.  I
do not believe that nondisabled doctors have any more understanding of our
issues than the nondisabled, nonmedical community, although there are
exceptions to every rule.

Now I acknowledge one great benchmark in my life: not the one separating my
nondisabled life from my life as a person with a disability, but the one
separating the time before I wanted to die, and the time after.  I will never
look at my nondisabled neighbors the same way again -- ever.

There are intractable pain situations, and my heart goes out to these people.
 My story is just one story.  But at this time, the question for me becomes:
How many more people will die needlessly if physician assisted suicide is
sanctioned by law?  My other question is this: For the people with
disabilities who consider suicide, or who have considered suicide as the
solution, why do they want to die?  What are the reasons?  Is it because of
the disability itself?  Or is it because of society's dismissal, or lack of
proper regard for them?  If it is because of the latter, then we have much
work to do in each of our communities to educate our nondisabled neighbors.
Maybe we need to take the bull by the horns and shake these people for all
they're worth when we are talking with them about this.

With your permission, I have attached a study that came to me some time ago
on a listserv for people with disabilities in the Commonwealth of Virginia
(USA).  The comment in the first paragraph seems to be in line with my
opinion about this.

If you got this far, you deserve a medal -- thanks for reading my story.

Betty Alfred

 <A
HREF="http://www.tell-us-your-story.com/_disc58r/00000014.htm#ARCHIVES">Loving
 my disability</A>

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THE REAL FACTS ABOUT DISABILITY AND "QUALITY OF LIFE
"86% of spinal cord injured high-level quadriplegics rated their quality of
life as average or better than average.  Only 17% of their ER doctors,
nurses, and technicians thought they would have an average or better quality
of life if they acquired quadriplegia (KA Gerhart et al., Annals of
Emergency Medicine, 1994, vol. 23, 807-812).

No differences were found between 190 physically disabled persons and 195
"able bodied" persons on ratings of life satisfaction, frustration with life
or mood (P Cameron et al., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,
1973, vol. 41, 207-214).

The duration of disability was positively related with acceptance of
disability in persons with spinal cord injury-related paralysis.  Severity
of disability was of no importance in accepting life with a disability (F.
Woodrich & JB Patterson, Journal of Rehabilitation, 1983, July-Sept.,
26-30).

60% of paraplegics reported feeling more positively about themselves since
becoming disabled (C Ray & J West, Paraplegia, 1984, vol. 22, 75-86).

Interviews and tests administered to 133 persons with severe mobility
disabilities revealed no differences between them and the nondisabled norm
on psychosocial measures. In another study, no significant difference was
found between persons with severe disabilities (requiring wheelchair use and
daily personal assistance) and persons with no disabilities on quality of
life measures (R Stensman, Scandinavian Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine,
1985, vol. 17, 87-99).

In a study of life satisfaction of quadriplegics, fewer than a third of
those who used ventilators expressed dissatisfaction with their lives.
There is evidence that life satisfaction scores are higher in persons who
have had more time to adjust to disability (JR Bach & MC Tilton,  Archives
of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 1994, vol. 75, 626-632).

Spinal cord injured rehabilitation patients were similar to the general
population on self-ratings of depression, yet hospital staff consistently
overestimated the patients' level of depression (LA Cushman & MP Dijkers,
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 1990, vol. 71, 191-196.

Three-quarters of persons with spinal cord injuries rated their quality of
life as good or excellent.  Amount of paralysis made no difference, but
people who used ventilators rated their quality of life higher than those
not needing ventilators (GG Whiteneck et al., Rocky Mountain Spinal Cord
Injury System Report to the National Institute of Handicapped Research,
1985, 29-33.

Elderly paralyzed veterans rated their quality of life higher than similarly
aged men without disabilities (MG Eisenberg & CC Saltz)."

Paraplegia, 1991, vol. 29, 514-
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