Category: Care Not Killing

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Campaign Gathers Pace

First, a big “thank you” to all of you who managed to find a time to either send us messages of support or who put together one or two-minute videos explaining why you are so opposed to a change in the law on assisted suicide. These video messages are now being distributed to the House of Lords where we hope they will help persuade Peers not to progress the bill.

You can see all of the videos by clicking on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsHhEX9nXB1x3m840GiFFyg/videos

We have compiled a short film showing the written messages sent in by supporters please keep them coming. Write to us at info@notdeadyetuk.org

Here’s a link to the messages video. https://youtu.be/moLwo6FskLI

Our founder Baroness Campbell is preparing her speech for the debate to be held on the 22nd of October. As a precursor, she has written an article for the Parliament’s internal “newsletter” The House. You can read her article by clicking here.

https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/assist-disabled-people-to-choose-life-not-death

Finally, one of our supporters John Smith has put together a Mind Map that he used to collect his thoughts before he wrote his letter to the Peers. You might find it helpful

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Assisted dying assisted suicide Care Not Killing

Isle of Man Parliament to vote on Assisted Suicide

Tynwald
Picture of the chamber at Tynwald

Not Dead Yet is very concerned to learn that there is going to be a vote on assisted suicide in the Tynwald on the Isle of Man on Tuesday 21st Jan. There is no safe system of assisted suicide and disabled people want help to live, not to die. We would ask on anyone who lives on the Isle of Man to write to their Members of the House of Keys expressing concern about this vote and calling on MHKs to oppose this motion.

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Assisted dying assisted suicide Blog Care Not Killing Disability Disability portrayal

Disability, Assisted Suicide and the Film Industry

Picture of Simon and Debbie Binner

On 10th February, the BBC aired a disturbing documentary entitled “How to Die: Simon’s Choice”. The documentary followed Simon Binner a 57-year-old with motor neurone disease in the months before his assisted suicide at a Swiss suicide clinic last October.

The disturbing documentary has rightly been criticised by Care Not Killing, who said that it “risks skewing what people think about assisted suicide and sidelines alternatives, such as hospice and palliative care. It gives the impression that if you’re disabled or terminally ill your life is somehow worthless and you should kill yourself. Suicide is the biggest killer of young men in this country and the more it is normalised, the more people will think of it as a way out”.

This programme was yet another example of disability portrayal which promotes the idea that death is preferable to being disabled. There is nothing new in this; the film industry has been trotting out this message for years, who can forget Born on the 4th of July with Tom Cruise!

Dominick Evans a wheelchair user, who describes himself, as an “activist, filmmaker and speaker” has recently published an interesting article which discusses disability portrayal and assisted dying.

Picture of Dominick Evans
Dominick Evans

Dominick a New Yorker says, “I believe that if Hollywood showed more disabled actors, particularly wheelchair users, who we never see, and the stories were more reflective of the disabled experience, then people would believe disabled lives were worth living. There is a huge difference between a debilitating illness, such as brain cancer, in the end stages, and a person with a disability who is not dying. You can find success, love, fulfillment even if you happen to use a wheelchair. It is not the end of the world, and these films need to stop scaring people into thinking it is. We cannot change the narrative about disability when these kinds of films continued to be made”.

You can read the full article “Hollywood promotes the idea it is better to be dead than disabled”  by clicking here Dominick’s artcle

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