Loading ...In what came as quite a shock to me, more than half of the respondents of a recent online poll said they’d rather be dead than severely disabled.
Really? Dead? It’s not that bad, honestly…
Reuters reports:
In the online poll commissioned by Disaboom, a website and social network for people affected by disabilities, 52 percent of the 1,000 “nationally represented” adults chose death over losing the ability to live an independent life.
Disaboom, which launched the survey to better understand people’s perceptions of disabilities, said more than 54 million Americans - 1 in 6 people - live with some form of debilitating condition.
“We want to show everyone that it’s not the end, it’s a new beginning,” Glen House, co-founder of Disaboom and a quadriplegic for 18 years, said in an interview.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Philip // Jul 14, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Great stats to have, backs up what I’ve been saying for at least two years. Over half of people fear functional change/loss more than death. That says a lot about the emotionally created mindset behind why we make it so difficult to be disabled. We’d have to change things quite a bit to make it easier than dying, wouldn’t we?
2 My spin on disability awareness week // Jul 15, 2008 at 12:44 am
[…] Login ← Would you rather die than be disabled? […]
3 Erik // Jul 15, 2008 at 6:22 am
It’s amazing that society is so uneducated on issues surrounding disability. Resources such as Disaboom have done so much to raise awareness and curve negative opinions facing disability. I always like to say that most people are “temporarily abled” just waiting for the other shoe to fall off. Everyone is touched by disability during their life at one point or another. Education, community and communication are key.
4 I knew it! « Philip Patston | Diversityworks // Dec 16, 2008 at 5:52 am
[…] (I’ve wanted to say that “over at” thing for ages) says in a recent post that it was a “shock to me [that] more than half of the respondents of a recent online poll […]
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