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This highly stigmatizing @TorontoStar photo that presents med & vitamin/supplement bottles as rationale for death also relates to the bizarre assertion/interpretation of #BillC7 by NDP MPs - some of whom admitted to me after 2nd reading the party had never discussed it in caucus https://twitter.com/mssinenomine/status/1337893928582799360
What do you call a MP who on the phone one day confesses they know absolutely nothing about #BillC7 and have never read or discussed it and days later is publicly asserting that the disabled people, advocates, law professors and physicians opposed to it 'don't understand the law'
Add to that several MPs stood up in the House of Commons and publicly declared the same thing. Disabled people, law profs, lawyers, physicians, disability organizations - who have been studying this issue for years are 'ill-informed - compared to Randall Garrison, Angus, etc. /s
So they have asserted that no one who is not dying will be eligible for MAiD - which I can only assume means they have not read the actual #BillC7
OR
Because of ableism they read it and interpreted it in this very odd way --- gonna explain.
OR
Because of ableism they read it and interpreted it in this very odd way --- gonna explain.
My guess is that they have interpreted irreversible and in decline to mean essentially same thing as "reasonably foreseeable" death. Which they don't.
I have been in an irreversible state of decline for a decade & a half. This is nature of my disability.
I have been in an irreversible state of decline for a decade & a half. This is nature of my disability.
I went from ambulatory abled - to ambulatory but in pain and easily tired and weaker to cane user to walker user to ambulatory wheelchair user to non-ambulatory wheelchair user.
I also spent a long period in bed and had so many various complications, etc.
I also spent a long period in bed and had so many various complications, etc.
But to most non-disabled people health is defined as
Sick or healthy.
This is not an accident. The biomedical model defines health as the absence of illness or disability.
This is important to understand why disabled people see the absence of "reasonably foreseeable" as = us
Sick or healthy.
This is not an accident. The biomedical model defines health as the absence of illness or disability.
This is important to understand why disabled people see the absence of "reasonably foreseeable" as = us
There is also an assumption by physicians that I am 'suffering' just by being disabled. This comes out whenever another acute health issue arises - even if it is one that non-disabled people experience and would be treated as mundane, regular thing.
An example of this is when I had an anaphylactic reaction to an iron infusion which I needed because periodically I am anemic.
Allergic reactions are not unheard of. Mine was complicated by fact I have severe asthma, scarring from PE & other respiratory issues related to dx.
Allergic reactions are not unheard of. Mine was complicated by fact I have severe asthma, scarring from PE & other respiratory issues related to dx.
But rather than assume best case scenario and support my lungs in healing, when I didn't bounce back at speed an abled would (days) I was declared to be at "reasonably foreseeable" death stage.
This is subject line from 2015 email I sent.
This is subject line from 2015 email I sent.
About 3 months later I went for various lung function tests.
In those 3 months my lung volume capacity had tripled.
This happened just prior to MAiD being passed. I would've been offered it now.
In those 3 months my lung volume capacity had tripled.
This happened just prior to MAiD being passed. I would've been offered it now.
The doctors came into my room & gave me the 'affairs in order' talk (they don't actually say this). It's different from all the other talks bc they close the door and have all the time in the world for you. Honestly that's the thing that stood out most for me. NOW you have time
So the point is crip health is not the same. My life is not divided between 'getting sick - sick - getting better - all better'
The state of "irreversible decline" minus the state of "reasonably foreseeable" death is me even on a very good day.
I am in pain 24/7 but for now it is pain I prefer to manage without medications. When the pain was beyond my capacity to manage I spent years on 38.5 (old concentration) of methadone 3 times a day with additional hydromorphen PRN (if/as needed).
