Bethany

“But Carol Gill says that it is differential treatment—disability discrimination—to try to prevent most suicides while facilitating the suicides of ill and disabled people. The social science literature suggests that the public in general, and physicians in particular, tend to underestimate the quality of life of disabled people, compared with our own assessments of our lives. The case for assisted suicide rests on stereotypes that our lives are inherently so bad that it is entirely rational if we want to die.”
― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

“There is so much that able-bodied people could learn from the wisdom that often comes with disability. But space needs to be made. Hands need to reach out. People need to be lifted up.

The story of disabled success has never been a story about one solitary disabled person overcoming limitations—despite the fact that’s the narrative we so often read in the media. The narrative trajectory of a disabled person’s life is necessarily webbed. We are often only as strong as our friends and family make us, only as strong as our community, only as strong as the resources and privileges we have.”
― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

“The tensions between prayer and work, or contemplation and action, have been the topic of much discussion and argument. Some people put all their energy into prayer, believing that through prayer God will act in the world. Other people put all their energy into work, believing that only through the efforts of human hands and hearts will the work of the world get done. Still others see the need for both prayer and work but are puzzled whether one is more important than the other. I believe that the tensions we experience are actually not between contemplation and action, but between contemplation and agitation or between action and escapism.

(from Praying with Body and Soul, 105)”
― Jane E. Vennard, Praying with Body and Soul: A Way to Intimacy with God

“What worries me most about the proposals for legalized assisted suicide is their veneer of beneficence—the medical determination that for a given individual, suicide is reasonable or right. It is not about autonomy but about nondisabled people telling us what’s good for us. In the discussion that follows, I argue that choice is illusory in a context of pervasive inequality. Choices are structured by oppression. We shouldn’t offer assistance with suicide until we all have the assistance we need to get out of bed in the morning and live a good life. Common causes of suicidality—dependence, institutional confinement, being a burden—are entirely curable.”
― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century