John Kelly, from Not Dead Yet, speaks out on disability and assisted suicide.

John Kelly, a regional director for Not Dead Yet and the founder of the disability rights group: Second Thoughts, who lives with quadriplegia, spoke about disability rights and assisted suicide at the recent Euthanasia Symposium in Toronto Canada.

John Kelly speaking in Toronto

This Youtube video covers the main points from his rousing speech at the Symposium.

Link to the Youtube video.

The talk by Kelly at the Symposium was influenced by his experience with a serious medical emergency the previous night.

Kelly compares his experience with a medical emergency to the recent case of Tim Bowers. One day after a severe accident, Bowers was brought out of sedation and asked if he wanted to die.

Kelly then discusses how his POLST form would affect him in a medical emergency. POLST is the Physician Orders Life Sustaining Treatment form that Americans are being urged to sign.

Kelly then speaks about how our culture demeans people, such as himself, who live with significant disabilities. He discusses current movies that depict, people like himself, in a negative light and then comments on his experience in relation to social attitudes towards people with disabilities.

Kelly concludes his talk by saying:

"That's the way they try to smear us. We're the trouble making disabled people, not the peaceful death loving disabled people that everyone likes to have around"

Please share this Youtube video with everyone who is concerned about issues related to disability and assisted suicide. Link to the Youtube video.

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