Posted on 07/15/2008 4:18:27 PM PDT by wagglebee
July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - More than half of people in the US would rather be dead than disabled says a new survey. A US website for disabled people ran the survey which asked, "Which would you choose: Living with a severe disability that forever alters your ability to live an independent life, or death?" 52 per cent of the respondents chose death.
The survey, run by the online community and website Disaboom, found that differences in attitude toward disability were based on age, income, geographic location, and level of education. 63 percent of younger Americans chose death over disability, while of those of the so-called "boomer generation" (people between the age of 55 and 64 years) 50 percent chose death. 56 percent of Americans 65 and older would rather die than live with a disability.
Those with more education and higher incomes were more likely to choose death and the numbers were slightly lower, 45 percent, in the southern states. 57 percent of those with a college education said they would rather die than live with a severe disability, while only 30 per cent of respondents who have not completed a high school education chose death.
Dr. Glen House, founder of Disaboom, himself a quadriplegic, said he was working to change such attitudes. He told Medical News Today, "I want to share ways for people to understand that disability isn't the end of life. It can be a new beginning."
Dr. House was the first student in a wheelchair to graduate from the University of Washington School of Medicine, the first person to climb 14,110-foot Pikes Peak in a wheelchair, and is also a doctor, inventor, extreme sports enthusiast, husband and father.
"Disability touches more than 54 million Americans. My goal with Disaboom has been to provide the information, community, and connection that will enable people to pave a path that supports new goals and dreams - and determine the way they will choose to live forward," he said.
Dr. House developed Disaboom to serve as a comprehensive online resource for people living with severe disabilities, their families and friends, caregivers, recreation and rehabilitation providers, and employers.
The survey is another indicator of an alarming trend of growing negative attitudes towards disabilities and those who live with them. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Ontario-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said that it is just one more sign that a eugenics mentality has taken hold of the culture. This increasing negativity towards disability puts disabled people at risk, he said, because of the growth of support for legalised euthanasia.
"Negative attitudes," Schadenberg said, "towards living with a disability or people with disabilities is part of the deeply held beliefs within our culture."
"I can understand that a person would not want to live with a disability, but this shows how important it is to protect people with disabilities because they are a targeted group who face social and cultural isolation. People fear disability and so react by believing that they would be better off dead."
A poll taken in 2007 found that 71 percent of Canadians supported legalising physician-assisted suicide.
Visit the Disaboom website:
http://www.disaboom.com/
Exactly. The culture of death will use this to try to convince the disabled to end their lives.
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Perhaps. More likely they'll use it as justification to end the lives of the disabled by euthanasia.
Am I missing something? What kind of disabilities?
My dad lost an arm in WWII and was a auto mechanic. Not having that arm never stopped him from doing anything he wanted to do, accept as he said allot - wear a pair of gloves.
I shattered an ankle and blew out a knee and will limp and have pain till the day I die but hardly a reason to die early and in general does not stop me from doing anything and everything I want to do.
So what are they talking about?
Which is pretty much the same thing. They will drug the disabled and convince them that it’s their idea.
You post some of the most interesting things!
Considering the thread, I'm not quite sure if that's a compliment or not.
The relevant survey would be one of disabled people, I suspect the answers would be quite different. And in either case, irrelevant regarding public policy.
I heard a emergency room doctor talk about motorcycle riders on the radio a few years ago.
He broke them down into two categories, those not wearing helmets and and those who do.
Only he called them organ donors (non-helmeted) and quadraplegics (helmeted).
I just returned from a quick motorcycle trip to Home Depot. As always, no helmet.
"Those who don't ride motorcycles under any circumstances and are quite healthy as they move into their Golden Years of enjoying family, friends and life in general with a healthy body, mind and spirit."
Not anti-bike, so don't flame me.
I've learned that, given the state of today's drivers, it's not a matter of IF you'll get injured on a bike, but WHEN.
Most of these young yokels that talk tough and tell you they would choose death, would beg for a chance to change their mind once it happens to them.
When I was a teen, I had a friend that broke his back and paralyzed from waist down. I thought for years how that would be worse than death. Now I’m old and I don’t see it that way at all. I just saw him saturday for the first time ever in a wheelchair. Before I was scared to see him and so I just avoided him.
We can be really dumb about certain things in life when we are young.
Same with a car. And that old saying about “not if, but when”, was always true. About both cars and bikes.
This is sick. The gutless would kill themselves while those with guts would persevere. Some disabled people make greater contributions to society than people with tremendous talent. Most people don’t know how well off they are and liberals especially are constantly whining about not having as much as the next guy. I have hired and employed many people and I can say categorically that conservatives work circles around whining liberals.
Yes, but in a car there’s at the very least a thin strip of metal between you and the other car.
No flames from me, auto drivers are notorious for either not seeing a motorcycle, or not understanding that we ‘own’ as much space as a typical small car, or just don’t care.
As a result I drive very defensively, moving to the traffic side of my lane when there is someone in the vicinity, keeping my distance etc.
I don’t think it’s inevitable that I’ll have an accident, but I keep driving as though others don’t see me.
Sounds like they're already convinced.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Your life value has been assessed, and no justification for your continued existance has been found. Please report in the morning for recycling...
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