Your Letters – June 2011

Assisting is no crime

I get annoyed with people who sit in judgement on others. Why should anyone be afraid of assisted dying?

My wife and I have talked about this subject over the years, and listened to all the arguments. We came to the decision some time ago that were the law to be changed and were it not illegal for one of us to assist the other in a dignified death, each of us would be able to do so.

Nearly two years ago, on her 60th birthday, my wife was diagnosed with stage-4 ovarian cancer. After months of chemotherapy she was told that nothing could be done and it was terminal.

Since then she has had no quality of life whatsoever. She can do nothing and go nowhere. She was told in late 2009 that she would not make it to Christmas , and definitely not to her 61st birthday. In spite of that, she is still with me.

She wants it all over, and although it breaks my heart, I have to agree with her.

If the law were changed I would assist her to die. I would do it with a broken heart but I would do it, because I love her with all my heart, and do not want her to continue to suffer.

With proper safeguards in place, there would be no fear surrounding assisted dying. Unless the person concerned had actually requested an assisted death, any act leading to a death would still be murder.

I’ve watched our doctors and nurses at the hospital over the past months and never have I ever seen any patient neglected. In fact, the opposite. The more frail and t erminally ill the patient is, the more care is lavished upon them.

Our doctors and nurses obviously want to keep patients alive, rather than lead them to an early death.

It is not the doctors and nurses who let patients down; it’s the system. Every area in patient treatment is understaffed, staff are run off their feet, and yet our governments (all of them) keep cutting NHS funding.

Across-the-board cuts affect the vulnerable, the elderly, the disabled and the working class. That’s something none of the millionaires in the Cabinet (18 at the moment, according to The Times) can have any experience of.

Let’s be sensible about assisted death (not suicide), change the law and put in the necessary safeguards, and let us not be soft on anyone who breaks these safeguards.
Les Harrison, by email


European Disability Forum falsely accused

In response to last month’s letter “European Disability Forum [EDF] fails us” (Disability Now, May 2011), we have worked with the EDF and are disappointed with what the letter-writer has to say.

We agree that in some countries, institutions are unfortunately being funded by European funds. That is something that is permitted by European law but EDF does not support this, and is campaigning for the law to be changed before the next tranche of funding from 2013-20.

The European Network for Independent living (ENIL) does not support the development of institutions as implied in the letter. EDF has worked along with ENIL and other European disability NGOs such as Inclusion Europe, Mental Health Europe, and Autism Europe, trying to develop community-based structures to replace institutions.

As the leading organis­ation for independent living, ENIL has always campaigned against institutions. Nonetheless, it is essential that EDF exists as it is very active within the European Commission and is able to react when an issue arises or when the Commission needs advice.

Without EDF we would not have achieved access to aeroplanes (as recently publicised in the story of the UN Special Rapporteur on disability being denied access to a Swissair plane), for example.

In the current economic climate, we believe EDF has an important role to play.
John Evans OBE and Jane Hunt, by email


Make all bays equal

Isn’t Alice Pike missing the point about disabled parking bays? (See “Ask the Experts”, Disability Now, May 2011.)  I’m a wheelchair-user and I think that if Alice means she doesn’t mind non-disabled people using disabled bays, why not make all bays for disabled people and non-disabled people alike wider? At least if they were wider, wheelchair-users would have enough space to manoeuvre in and out.
Paul Butt, by email


Getting medieval

The Government’s plans for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are making disability sound more and more feudal. Soon, we’ll start being called “handicapped” again, as we all stand outside Government buildings, cap in hand, begging for alms! What happens to Motability if PIP (Personal Independence Payments) provision ends automatically when we retire or turn 65? Do we all have to give our cars back and hide behind closed doors so we don’t embarrass the Government?  
Brenda Hawkyard, by email


Government’s heavy hand is bullying

Can anyone explain to me the Government’s obsession with disabled people?

From Thatcher to Cameron, they have all tried to bully disabled people. Why don’t they bully the banks to get our money back and leave us alone?

By all means sort out the scroungers but please leave the rest of us alone. How would they like it if we died and it said on our grave­stones “Could not get help from the Government”?

How can these people sleep at night knowing that they are killing us slowly?

Why can’t they pick on something else instead, and leave us alone?
Neil Preston, by email