Protecting the disabled
Disability awareness is certainly emerging these days, after the subject hit the national consciousness last year with the Terri Schiavo case. Organizations representing the impaired are increasing and taking on more assertive projects to protect the profoundly disabled from unethical doctors, nurses and lawmakers. They are the phoenix rising out of the ashes of this culture.
Disability Nation is one of the big ones.
DisabilityNation is a revolutionary approach to providing information, news
and feature content about disability issues. The Internet based audio
magazine or podcast is available at www.disabilitynation.net and provides
people with disabilities, their families and friends with an opportunity to
learn more about disability issues. Past shows have highlighted issues
such as accessibility to fitness centers, disability organizations such as
The National Spinal Cord Injury Association, people with disabilities
involved in theatre and the arts, profiles of people with disabilities and
many other topics. Larry Wanger, creator and producer of DisabilityNation
says, “The goal of the site and Podcast is to promote people with
disabilities living life to the fullest and to dispel many of the stereotypes
and beliefs that are held by some people today.â€
People hold those sterertypes and beliefs largely because of media coverage that is incomplete at best and tendentious at worst. Fortunately, groups like this are using whatever media is available to them to inform the public better than the MSM. Disability Nation is running a series on their site with a wealth of information.
Assisted Suicide, futility laws and end of life issues
continue to be important issues for people with disabilities. DisabilityNation
episode 10 features an in-depth interview with Diane Coleman of
Not Dead Yet and highlights the current work and activities of the
organization.
Not Dead Yet is another strong advocate for the disabled, and the two groups are running a joint campaign of information.
Not Dead Yet was founded on April 27, 1996 shortly after Jack Kevorkian
was acquitted in the assisted suicides of two women with non-terminal
disabilities. In a 1997 Supreme Court rally, the outcry of 500 people with
disabilities chanting “Not Dead Yet” was heard around the world. Since
then, eleven other national disability rights groups have joined NDY in
opposing legalized assisted suicide, chapters have taken action in over
30 states, and the organization helped put Jack Kevorkian behind bars
in 1999. In the 2003-2005 fight to save Terri Schiavo, twenty-five national
disability groups joined Not Dead Yet in opposing her guardian’s right to
starve and dehydrate her.
Her guardian, Michael Schiavo, was granted that guardianship in a hearing her parents were not even informed was taking place. And the Constitution actually requires a higher standard of proof than Schiavo’s sort-of recall that he was carrying out her wishes. But how that case was litigated is for another post, or book.
And why should anyone going about life happy and healthy pay attention to this right now? Because it could, with no notice, become your father or mother, your sister or brother, or daughter. Just ask Bob and Mary Schindler.