By: Meghan Schrader
Meghan Schrader
Meghan is an instructor at E4 - University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member.
Previous blog articles by Meghan Schrader (Link).
Recently an X user wrote in response to my toilet blog post: “Meghan Schrader's tantrums won't affect any Canadians who wish to access MAID but tell her thanks anyway.” I imagine that this is the reaction that most right to die leaders will have to that post if they read it: “Dude, throw my book in a toilet if that makes you happy. I’m still going to do what I do.” I’m sure there are many readers out there who think that my blog posts and X comments are “tantrums.”
Well, in a way, they are. Although civil disobedience has a longstanding role in disability justice advocacy, me throwing someone’s internationally acclaimed collection of snuff stories in a toilet is probably as effective as a “tantrum;” it is unlikely to change the situation on its own. I was asked to write blogs for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition so I do, even though I don’t think that the people in charge of the publishing companies that have republished Green’s dreck in multiple languages are going to see my blog post about the toilet and conclude, “Oh my gosh, Meghan’s right, Canada’s “MAiD” program is disgusting! And to think we spent all that time promoting Green’s Ted Talk!”
But I enjoy using hyperbole. I love John Oliver and Stephen Colbert’s use of sarcasm and observational comedy to lampoon cultural trends. I wish people like that would do segments about how the “MAiD” movement helps take the world’s abuse of people with disabilities to its lowest common denominator and some of my statements are meant to be a blog post or social media version of that. Unlike me and most other assisted suicide opponents, Colbert and Oliver have billions of followers, but are their skits going to make all of the injustice in the world go away? No, but perhaps their comedy still has a role in contributing to public discourse about oppression. I have, at times, spoken harshly in the wrong context and have needed to apologize, but that is rare. The intended objects of my most intense statements aren’t wounded souls whose terminally ill parent shot themselves, they are the shameless ableists who want to kill disabled children and set up up doctors panels to decide whether people with severe mental illnesses like I’ve experienced should be killed without their consent.
Although I realize that my own impact is limited, I can’t help but want to push back against the proponents’ entitled expectation that opponents will respond to all of their goals with the utmost respect and nuance. I am capable of nuanced debate, but since a lot of my advocacy happens in short blog posts and X threads, I’ve generally decided to model a lack of tolerance for persons who bully vulnerable people into assisted suicide.
I think all activists have to use the tools we have with humility. Much smarter disability justice scholars and lawyers who have published award-winning books and done Ted Talks have worked to change the adherents’ minds, yet they have not been able to convert them all. I believe in God, and I’m sure that He is working to interrupt the right to die movement’s activities. If His intervention has not made all of the proponents’ activities go away, why would I think that my blog posts and Twitter threads can do that?
But I don’t think throwing up one’s hands and letting the right to die movement go unanswered because one does not have a lot of power is the right response either. A lot of disabled people who aren’t privileged enough to publish their thoughts in a peer-reviewed journal or lead parliamentary hearings have used the lifeline of #DisabilityTwitter to help oppose assisted suicide. (I still find X to be an accessible platform and valuable opportunity for community, but since Elon Musk ridiculously elimated Twitter’s nascent Accessibility Experience Team in 2022, a lot of these individuals have moved to BlueSky.) Regardless of what platform is being used, I think using social media to bring awareness to Canada’s “MAiD” program helped prevent the expansion of “MAiD” to people with mental illnesses that was planned for 2023. My “useless” X presence gave me the privilege of helping my friend “Amy,” and that was definitely worthwhile. ADAPT’s 2014 protest outside a conference of the World Federation of Right To Die Societies did not cause that organization to collapse, but I still think it was valuable for ADAPT to show up and communicate that not everyone is willing to fawn over a movement that treats disabled people like pigs and car accident statistics. Singer and songwriter John Pike produced a scathing, satirical music video about Canada’s “MAiD” program called “Public Service Announcement From the Canadian Government” and I think that video is one of the coolest things around.
History is full of things that no longer exist because enough ordinary individuals refused to put up with them. Historically, the disability justice movement has played a critical role in slowing and stopping the assisted suicide movement’s efforts; that’s why one bioethicist who used to support assisted suicide apologized in 2004. It’s why “MAiD” did not sweep across the globe after Oregon’s law was passed in 1994 or during the uptick in right to die sensationalism in 2015. It’s why so many Labour politicians in the UK voted against its assisted suicide bill and why the New York assisted suicide bill was opposed by 27 Democrats.
Privileged “MAiD” activists who have admitted that they are willing to murder marginalized people seem to have the smug expectation that everyone will eventually join their death cult. Some of the content of my advocacy is my attempt to help make unequivocal, continuing opposition to their agenda visible in whatever small way that I can.
The hundreds of disability justice advocates who aren’t me aren’t giving up. That’s why the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of People with Disabilities opposes “MAiD.” That’s why most disability justice organizations in the world have fought assisted suicide. Righteous indignation over disabled people’s wrongful deaths is why disability justice pioneers with more talent than me are filing lawsuits and publishing their own anti assisted suicide work.
That movement to prevent disabled people’s wrongful deaths is worth being part of. And hopefully someday that opposition will reinstitute disabled people’s equal access to suicide prevention, which is key to advancing our human rights in general. So I will go ahead and keep having my “tantrums.”
Previous blog articles by Meghan Schrader (Link).
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