"Death with dignity" or "physician assisted suicide" legislation is a particularly contentious bioethical issue within the disability community,where desires for personal autonomy are pitted against very real concerns about the potential for abuse of such legislation in an already marginalized and devalued segment of society. This paper will present the methods and results of a participatory action research (PAR)project conducted by and with a diverse group of people with physical disabilities with the goal of broadening the dialogue about "death with dignity" (DWD) legislation. Two of the three research team members and all six community advisory board members have substantial physical disabilities and they hold divergent opinions on this issue. Board members were active in every stage of the research process,including in-depth qualitative interviewing of 45 San Francisco Bay Area residents with disabilities. Results,shared with participants,suggested a wide range of attitudes toward DWD legislation and considerable ambivalence across age,SES,religious and racial/ethnic groups. Decisions about how to use findings were made collectively by participants at two community meetings and will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe two principles of PAR that make this approach useful for the study of polarizing bioethical issues. 2. Describe three major reasons identified for the ambivalence toward "death with dignity" legislation by people with disabilities. 3. Identify two implications of the findings for policy making around "death with dignity" legislation.
Keywords: Bioethics, Death
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.