Series on Life Threatening Public Policy

The Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities is sponsoring a series of free education sessions this spring (seven 4-hour sessions, April-June) on "Life Threatening Public Policy." Here is a description of the program:

Public policy that threatens the lives of people with disabilities is not new, or even a modern, concept. However, the legitimization of policies and methods that end up killing people in today’s world is unprecedented. We hope that our seven-part series will generate a nucleus of people in Connecticut who will be able to recognize public policy which threatens the lives of people with disabilities and who will be prepared to challenge such policy.

Of particular relevance to medical futility is the May 30th session: Quality Of Life And Medical Deathmaking.

Presenter: Jo Massarelli. Jo will analyze the concept of “quality of life” and the ways in which current medical practice has used it to endanger the lives of people with disabilities. Modern medicine has become a paradox. On one hand, medicine is heralded for life saving treatments and, on the other hand, it is complicit in abbreviating the lives of those whom it deems to have a poor “quality of life.”