Roger Foley is a Canadian man who is being pressured to die by assisted suicide. His disability requires consistent care and he will continue to require medical assistance as his condition is degenerative.
Mr. Foley wants to keep living and receive care that is specified to him. He claims, however, that hospital staff told him he should choose assisted suicide, that he had been in the hospital too long, and that his bills would be inordinate amounts.
While the lawsuit against the hospital is still underway, it cannot be denied that the healthcare system devalues people with disabilities and encourages cost-saving assisted suicide over life-saving and dignity-promoting healthcare.
As Mr. Foley states, “There is pressure on [disabled] people who should be treated equally and celebrated for their strength and diversity and difference. Society deems us better off dead. We have to justify being alive and [to pro-euthanasia contingents] our lives don’t matter.”
Medical professionals and hospital staff should prioritize palliative care, hospice care, home care, long term services and supports, and disability services to ensure that everyone has equal access to the life-sustaining resources available to all who require them. Assisted suicide is not a solution to suffering, but a cheap and discriminatory practice.
Matt Vallière in the Los Angeles Times Thanks to the LA Times for sharing Matt’s letter, which strongly opposes assisted suicide laws. Read his letter to the editor below: Steve Lopez asks, “Will the option [of assisted suicide] be there for others?” To plaintiffs in the referenced lawsuit and many in the disability, older adult
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