Earth To Pro-Deathers: Life Can Be Lived With A Disability

Here's a good piece telling the side of the story the pro-deathers would rather you didn't know: That it's entirely possibly to live a full and rewarding life even if one has some form of disability, and that being killed or killing your self is not an option.

The challenges of life in a wheelchair

There has been a long-running controversy about the scarcity of disabled characters in Britain’s soap operas. But if Emmerdale, ITV’s Yorkshire-based tale of country folk, hoped to win plaudits from campaigners for its current plotline about a young man with a spinal cord injury, then its producers will have been disappointed. The widely reported revelation – albeit so far unconfirmed officially – that Jackson Walsh (played by Marc Silcock) is to choose assisted suicide over life as a wheelchair user, has prompted a chorus of complaints.

“Anybody who’s had a spinal injury,” says Simon Morris – who, like the Jackson character, has a “C3” or high-level spinal cord injury and has no movement below his neck – “will know that it is normal to have feelings of suicide when you are adjusting to your new life.” more