ADAPT Community Statement re: Terry Schiavo

Below is a Community Statement from ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation) on the Terry Schiavo matter.

March 31, 2005

We mourn the death of Terri Schiavo.

For many of us in the disability community this event underscores the devaluing of the lives of people with disabilities, especially people with significant disabilities.

With radical reforms in store for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security we cannot help but remember that the cheapest way to serve people with disabilities is to kill us.

The double standards and inconsistent positions of both the right and the left leave many of us feeling vulnerable at best.

Disabled should not mean disposable.

Nat Hentoff recently wrote in the Village Voice:

".a 41-year old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history."

That this event was allowed to take place is deeply disturbing to us.

That some would sweep it away as nobody's business is equally disturbing.
Many immoral decisions have been made by the Courts. The Dred Scott decision and Buck vs. Bell are just two historic Supreme Court examples of judicial indifference to the rights of minorities.

Terri's death will hopefully bring to light the discrimination all people with disabilities experience and the need for society to address solutions so this never happens again.

Disabled people and Proud of it!

The ADAPT Community
http://www.adapt.org/


For more information and resources on autism go to: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.