Winter Views
by Kathleen Rose Winter
Windy City Times
2005-04-27
Human Terri
When does a human being become a vegetable? Who decides when that
person slips from a human being into an item comparable to something
in a store’s produce section? Other human beings, and the government,
make this decision, and it is wrong. This whole question of deciding
the worth of a human being based on someone’s perception of that
individual’s quality of life is wrong. Letting Terri die of hunger and
thirst set a dangerous precedent for the extermination of people with
disabilities. It is cruel and unusual punishment for someonewho was
guilty of nothing.
Behind the whole question of the life of Terri Schiavo, her `quality
of life’ , is an ugly part of this society’s arrogant view of persons
with disabilities. Instead of the `right’ to die, could she not have
received the `right’ to live? As a person with a disability, who is
wheelchair mobile, I face this ugly truth each day. I want the right
to live. The right to healthcare, employment and housing. But what I
see instead is President Bush cutting housing for the disabled and the
courts upholding the torture of a human being.
When I saw the pictures of Terri smiling while her mother kissed her,
I could see the vitality and validity of her life-her soul. My life
and those of other disabled people is not different from Terri’s,
because we areresponsive, able to talk or express ourselves, and she
was not. We are all human. No one can judge the way a person expresses
themselves or what they feel inside. And government certainly should
not sanction the cruel and inhumane murder of someone based on the
perception of a society that does not value the worth, validity or
humanity of a disabled persons’ life.
The word `invalid’ says it all. Our society pronounces it with the
emphasis on the first syllable. Webster’s New Revised Dictionary
defines it as `A chronically sick or disabled person. Disabled by
disease or injury’. The other definition places the emphasis on the
second syllable, and is defined as`Not factually or legally valid
… unsound.’ The first definition is a word made up to suit the
perception of this society. Both pronunciations are close enough to
equate a person with a disability as not valid, void, empty of
humanity. Apparently this society feels the same way because they did
something to Terri that isn’t done to people sentenced to death. The
condemned prisoner gets a last meal, not the misfortune of being
legally denied food and water until death occurs.
Every day, several times a day, I experience the most demoralizing
comments, questions, and assumptions about my life and its
validity. People have cometo me and said, `Good morning! You sure are
a brave person. If I were you, I couldn’t handle it. I would kill
myself.’ When I ride the lift bus people comment openly about me as if
I am invisible. If I am with someone they askthat person if they are
my nurse or `helper’. People touch me inobscene, inappropriate,
aggressive ways without my permission, insisting they are helping
me. When I politely insist on my independence, I am viewed as mean or
bitter. It seems as if people are more comfortable with their
perception of me as not being a whole human being. Overall I am seen
as helpless with no humanity; invisible. Historically many
populations try to insist on their validity as human beings. Some
people understand the origin of the de-humanizing stereotypes and work
to dispel them. But what of the person with the disability?
Terri Schiavo had a severe disability. She was a human being with a
soul. I want everyone reading this to think about being starved to
death and dying of thirst. Try to make it six hours without eating and
drinking and you’ll probably say, `I’m starving to death’. How
innocentthose words seem when spoken with money and food available to
you. Now think of Terri starving to death and realize that she was
starving due to the opinions of other human beings andthe United
States government. She was there wondering why she felt so bad; why
she felt weak and sick-why her lips were cracked and why no one would
bring her a simple drink of water. She was there wondering why she was
dying. Yes, I can think for her to give her life, especially if others
disavow her humanity to give her death. The truth is she was being
murdered; when an autopsy is done, it will find that she died of
hunger and dehydration. As a human being she felt every bit of the
pain that a human experiences when he or she experiences that kind of
death. She was tortured to death. There are laws, international and
national, which prohibit this torture. Why does it not extend to
someone with a disability? No one has the legal or moral right to
decide on the quality of someone else’s life to the point that they
can end that person’s life with torture.
As a person with a disability, I am frightened. This country has a
track record of dehumanizing people. It is a historical fact that
Africans, Natives, and Jewish people were dehumanized, in order to
justify the enslaving and genocide of them as a whole population. In
America, the lack of human worthfor Africans and Natives was written
into law and thus justified genocide. The world sat by and watched the
genocide of three million Armenians in 1915 and six millions Jewish
people during World War II. Am I to wait for my turn as a person with
a disability?
I hope that this world comes to the realization that disability is a
natural part of life. People fear it to the point of denial. The most
drastic of denial is denying the existence and humanity of people with
disabilities tothe point of invisibility. If something that is
supposed to be invisible, attempts visibility, it is erased. I do not
want to be erased. Hopefully, as this country comes to realize that in
approximately 15 years, one half of its population is going to be
disabled in some way, the humanity and of people with disabilities
will be realized and respected.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress