Study: People with disabilities "tend to have reservations about legalizing assisted suicide"

Some public figures who support the legalization of assisted suicide argue that more people with disabilities would openly support assisted suicide if they were not afraid of public condemnation from disability rights activists.

A recent study, "Views of Disabled People Regarding Legalized Assisted Suicide Before and After A Balanced Informational Presentation" (Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2005)), gave individuals with disabilities an opportunity to register their views anonymously. The findings showed that the majority of respondents with disabilities were opposed to assisted suicide for disabled people and feared that legalization would lead to involuntary deaths and discriminatory medical care.

Regarding assisted suicide in cases of terminal illness, there was no clear-cut majority support across respondents with disabilities. Rather, support for assisted suicide was related to such under-researched factors as gender, race, disability type, and amount of information about the issues. Women, African Americans, and Latinos tended to oppose legalization of assisted suicide. In fact, only White men with disabilities clearly favored legalization. Persons with multiple sclerosis were more opposed to assisted suicide than a sample of persons with various types of disability.

When given balanced information on the topic, opposition to legalized assisted suicide across respondents slightly increased, especially among those who did not have strong positions to begin with. Most respondents believed that even the best safeguards in laws on assisted suicide could not prevent wrongful deaths.

This study's results suggest that even when people with disabilities are allowed to express their views under the protection of anonymity, they tend to have reservations about legalizing assisted suicide. They are concerned about such laws leading to involuntary deaths and discrimination in healthcare. Although people with disabilities are more likely to endorse assisted suicide for terminal illness rather than non-terminal conditions, women and people of color tend to express opposition in all cases. Gender and race figure importantly in views on this topic, a fact that has been overlooked by many observers. In fact, white men--arguably the most politically privileged sector of the disability population--seem to be the most consistent base of support for legalization.

This study raises significant questions about the disability community's views on legalizing assisted suicide: Is support for assisted suicide positively associated with social/political privilege? Are people with disabilities more likely to oppose legalization when they are better informed on the topic? Is the "public intimidation" argument a false diversion in the debate?

Read study (PDF format | .DOC format )

NOT DEAD YET * 7521 Madison St * Forest Park, IL 60130
Voice/TTY: 708-209-1500 * Fax: 708-209-1735 * TTY: 708-209-1826