“As a disability-rights advocate, I am concerned about choice, self-determination, and bodily autonomy 

and that is why I am opposed to the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide.”

Brianna Hammond has a chronic disability and depends on life-preserving treatments. Although there is no cure for her condition, pain-relieving medications and other treatments that ease her condition are invaluable and help her live her life to the fullest. Her fight for proper care is a constant battle against biased medical professionals who look at her wheelchair and speech device as signs her life is not dignified, and insurance companies who wish to cut costs. 

Brianna acknowledges that, even as a fighter with a supportive family, there are times when the constant fight for care and the need to defend her own dignity deeply discourage her.

The top five reasons people request assisted suicide in legal states are not physical pain, but disability-related concerns like feeling like a burden on family. Advocates like Brianna face a pervasive societal devaluation and demoralization of people with disabilities. Assisted suicide laws set up a two-tiered system of medicine, wherein some get suicide prevention, and others, namely people with life threatening disabilities, get suicide help – the result: death to the devalued group.

The top five reasons people request assisted suicide in legal states are not physical pain, but disability-related concerns like feeling like a burden on family. Advocates like Briana face a pervasive societal devaluation and demoralization of people with disabilities. Assisted suicide laws set up a two-tiered system of medicine, wherein some get suicide prevention, and others, namely people with life threatening disabilities, get suicide help – the result: death to the devalued group.ttp://www.rgj.com/storyopinion/voices/2019/02/1\9/assisted-suicide-invites-discrimination-against-poor-disabled-hammon/2919650002