Today’s Recommended Reading is very fast because my laptop battery is about to die.
Trigger Warnings & Comments are not always great & not all opinions are endorsed by us. Normally I clip a bit from each article, but today is going to be quick links. Sorry!
Wordweaverlynn: A Public Service Announcement Re: “So if you’re looking for a counselor who won’t tell you you’re crazy because you have unconventional desires”
Cathy Writes Stuff: Another Crack of the Whip from an Ignorant Tory Re: Comments about how REAL disabled people aren’t on twitter.
Where’s the Benefit: The Real Difference Made by Disability Living Allowance
In the News:
UK: Outrage as agony aunt tells TV audience ‘I would suffocate a child to end its suffering’
UK: The Battle for Independence Begins in our homes
UK: Frequent Tweeting Doesn’t Make One A Benefit Cheat, Nadine Dorries
Australia: Women assaulted in mental health wards Re: gender-segregated wards in Australian mental health facilities.
US: A Crowning Achievement: FSHS Homecoming opens new door (via Rainbow on DW) Re: There was a policy that prevented students with disabilities being nominated for homecoming court.
I watched the segment after reading on Clair Lewis’s blog that she was going to be appearing with Ironside and she predicted that the latter was going to deliver a “eugenicist rant”. I thought she was exaggerating but what I actually saw was really staggering — she actually said that, if she were the mother of a “deeply suffering child”, she would be the first to want to put a pillow over its face (I could see another panellists’ jaw drop at that) and that any mother would think the same.
Lewis wrote this write-up and I wrote this. It came up for discussion this morning on the BBC London station’s morning chat show with Vanessa Feltz and I contacted them, but they didn’t call me back, so I emailed them (she didn’t read it out, though):
Hi Vanessa,
I have the privilege of knowing a number of severely disabled people, among them two quadriplegics, one of them blind, and several with M.E., including friends of the late Lynn Gilderdale, who suffered with severe M.E. for 17 years before taking her own life in 2008. I have heard accounts of M.E. at its worst, in which the sufferer is in terrible pain, cannot move, cannot speak or swallow, and cannot tolerate noise or light or being touched. I’ve not heard of a single incident of a parent taking it upon herself to end their child’s life in that way in those circumstances. I’m horrified that someone would think it’s just the natural thing to do, or even want to do. I remember seeing interviews with Kay Gilderdale (Lynn’s mum) in which she said her heart was being ripped out as Lynn asked for help at the end.
This attitude, that a sick or disabled person’s life just isn’t worth living, is terrifying to a lot of disabled people, however widespread it is. To hear a woman say this like it’s the most natural thing in the world was simply appalling and staggering.
Just to clarify, my last comment relates to the “Outrage as agony aunt tells TV audience ‘I would suffocate a child to end its suffering'” item.