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Misrepresentation No. 4: When we raise concerns about the legalization of assisted suicide leading to unwanted deaths for people with disabilities, LAS proponents argue that we confuse assisted suicide with involuntary euthanasia. We counter that proponents have not given sufficient consideration to what actually constitutes true voluntary choice at end of life. Proponents wrongly assume that people always have access to options. Personal circumstances such as race, age, disability, class, and gender impinge upon the choices available to an individual. As a community living with an inadequate, and sometimes nonexistent, supply of necessary disability-related services, we know that options are not always available (Gill, 2010, p. 35). In a discussion about assisted suicide in Oregon, Gill poses the following rhetorical question: "If requesters die believing that their only options are a nursing home, the degrading imposition of their intimate needs on family, or taking their chances on the help of strangers, how is that voluntary? (Gill, 2010, p. 35)"
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