Friday, August 05, 2011

No one has the right to switch off a human life... I should know: One woman's story of being locked inside her own body


Campaign: 'I believe that every life that ends at Dignitas, and every dependent patient who is allowed to die by starvation, erodes my right to live'

"Can you imagine a lonelier or more frightening place to be trapped in, unable to communicate, than your own body?

These are terrifying times for anyone who cannot speak up for themselves. Whether they know it or not, they are lying prone in a world increasingly seduced by the idea that death is preferable to the life they are living.

The increasingly vocal advocates, who promote ‘assisted suicide’ for those who are too disabled to express their own feelings on the matter, cannot begin to imagine what it is like to live such a life.

They cannot begin to imagine how profoundly illness, or physical and mental disability, might actually enhance that individual’s appreciation of the value of life itself — even if it bears scant resemblance to the life they were living before.

But I can. I have lived that life and I know how precious it is. I have experienced the torture of total paralysis and I now live with serious disability. But I will be grateful until my dying day that no one had the right to ‘turn’ me off." To read more, click here.

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