Disaboom Survey Reveals 52 Percent of Americans Would Rather be Dead Than Disabled - Forbes.com

Disaboom Survey Reveals 52 Percent of Americans Would Rather be Dead Than Disabled - Forbes.com

Check this out! As I read this do you know what surprises me? That the number isn't higher. On the other hand I am not surprised by the fact that rich people were more likely to choose death over disability. It just goes to show how backwards the wealthy in this country are. They seem to think that money will protect them and if it won't they would prefer to die. The ironic thing is that the rich would be the only class of people who could actually afford the treatments and supports necessary to live independently with a severe disability.

The other scary statistic is the one that shows people with college education are more likely to choose death over life with a severe disability. These are educated people who should understand something about the social nature of disability...oh wait, that's right, most people are graduating from college with little to no exposure on disability issues. But, that's why getting disability studies insitutionalized in the U.S. is so important. If there is one thing that disability studies excels at it's showing that disability is largely a matter of perspective. We all live with the delusion that we are invincible, but really life is a process of becoming disabled. Bodies, like cars or computers, wear out over time and we all need to make a choice to either accept this fact or to fight against it. Accepting this fact is the more rational response...fighting against it leads to the conclusion that it would be better to die than live with a disability which, when viewed in light of rational actor theory, is an irrational conclusion.

So, what does it mean that more people are afraid of disability than death? An interesting theoretical puzzle that I'll be mulling over this afternoon....