‘What lay ahead ...’: a media portrayal of disability and assisted suicide

Abstract

Our society treats people with disabilities in an inequitable manner when compared with non‐disabled people. This marginalisation is especially telling in the area of end‐of‐life issues. The confounding of disability with terminal illness can support practices of encouraging death via assisted suicide and other means for people who, although vulnerable, are not at the end of their lives. The purpose of this paper is to examine a series of news articles covering a Canadian story of assisted suicide. From 2004–2006, newspapers followed the case of Marielle Houle, a mother accused of assisting her son in committing suicide. Although he had a disabling condition at the time of his death, Fariala was not at the end of his life. We use the analytical framework of critical discourse analysis to understand what role, if any, the press played in creating and reinforcing larger societal assumptions about living and dying with a disability.

Trust increases euthanasia acceptance: a multilevel analysis using the European Values Study

“…In contrast, in Denmark and Finland, both ranging among the top countries with regard to high trust climates, the media have taken a positive stance on self-determined end-of-life decisions [ 64 , 65 ]. Similarly, they have proposed a pro-assisted-dying opinion in the medium to high trust countries of Australia [ 66 ], the USA [ 67 ], Canada [ 68 ], Britain [ 69 , 70 ] and Belgium (c.f., [ 71 ]). c…”

Palliative care for vulnerable populations

“…For example, one image from some Hollywood movies is that it is better to be dead than to be disabled. Several recent movies, including Million Dollar Baby , portray a life with disabilities as not worth living (Lutfiyya et al, 2009; Schwartz & Lutfiyya, 2009). These perceptions become part of public conversations and permeate our individual consciousness.…”

Euthanasia: A Confounding and Intricate Issue

“…Of course, the media have a decisive role to play in disseminating accurate information and thus fostering enlightened debate. Nevertheless, the sensitive and at times sensational nature of this subject makes it a strong magnet for headline-grabbing reporting that does not always reflect reality (Schwartz & Lutfiyya, 2009;Seale, 2010) and that, regrettably, helps perpetuate confusion. Unfortunately, there are practically no studies on the actual ideas of what constitutes euthanasia, or on which end-of-life practices are legal, among persons directly concerned by these issues.…”