Our Lives and Ideologies

Abstract

The opposition to a public policy of physician-assisted suicide from within the disability-rights community seems to be surprising to academics who are supporters of other civil rights movements. Physician-assisted suicide is seen by them as a part of a progressive political agenda, akin to abortion rights and the civil rights of minorities. Many disability-rights advocates see physician-assisted suicide as quite the opposite—an example of discrimination against people with disabilities and a threat to their individual rights. The great conflict between these two interpretations is not much reduced by listening to one another's arguments. Perhaps it will be better understood by considering how the political beliefs of real individuals have been changed by their own experiences with disability. This article reports how two individuals were led to change their beliefs about physician-assisted suicide as a result of their life experiences with disability.