The new civil rights movement
Saving the impaired and disabled from an untimely death in a society that rations health care for the most fit and ‘deserving’. That’s a movement to counter the creeping right to die movement selling its mission of euthanasia by changing laws and language.
We became aware of the forces at odds here when the Terri Schiavo case seized the nation’s consciousness three years ago. The lasting legacy of that dramatic ordeal is the ongoing work of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, and in recent months its extension, ‘America’s Lifeline’.
We’ve had compelling guests all along, some were people doctors had written off as practically dead, who came back to tell their story on the show. Kate Adamson could hear everything going on around her in the hospital room when doctors told her husband to let her die because there was no hope. Brendan Flynn suffered a traumatic brain injury and his mother was advised to let him die peacefully in a hospital bed because it would happen fast. She wouldn’t give up, asked for the surgery and….Brendan was on the show telling us that his family is responsible for his recovery today.
We’ve talked about organ donation and end of life decisions with repeat guest Nancy Valko, National Association of Pro-Life Nurses spokesman and a longtime expert.
Dr. Mark Mostert recently talked about the secret holocaust in Nazi Germany before the notorious one, the earlier cleansing of the medical institutions caring for the impaired and disabled. It’s quietly happening here now, in insidious ways, mostly out of sight and out of mind.
People with disabilities in the U.S. comprise approximately 20 percent of the population, some 50 million people. While the presidential candidates have quite carefully calibrated their messages to black voters, women, and those concerned about health care and environmental issues, as well as scores of other special-interest vectors, they appear to have ignored a group of voters who, by their disabilities, make up the largest minority group in the United States — by far.
Disability advocacy groups and blogs have been burning up cyberspace in frustration and more than a little anger. Their irritation is justified.
Perhaps U.S. politicians appear clueless about the issues facing people with disabilities because we in the developed world often assume that the rights of people with disabilities are already protected. That’s true — but often only to a point. In many other places, those with disabilities are, at best, ignored.
Another great advocate, expert bioethicist Wesley J. Smith, also a repeat guest, is on this week. He’s always compelling. Tune in.