Mourning the murder of the most helpless

 March 1st, is the 2016 Disability Day of Mourning – a day for disability communities, organizations, and groups around the country to gather and cherish the memories of those who we have lost to senselessness violence

NotDeadYet, a disability rights organization notes that in the last 5 years, 180 disable people have been murdered.
These acts are horrific enough on their own. But they exist in the context of a larger pattern. A parent kills their disabled child. The media portrays these murders as justifiable and inevitable due to the “burden” of having a disabled person in the family. If the parent stands trial, they are given sympathy and  comparatively lighter sentences, if they are sentenced at all. The victim is disregarded, blamed for their own murder at the hands of the person they should have been able to trust the most, and ultimately forgotten. And then the cycle repeats.
Today, we gather, and speak the names of those taken from us. 

Expect more propaganda in the media promoting death as the answer to sickness, aging, and disability.

It will be promoted in the name of "choice" (never mind that others pressure the person to that choice, in the same way abortion is often done under coercion).

Indeed, most of the cases of elderly euthanasia are propaganda, often by folks who are following a fad (similar to teenagers who kill themselves after there has been a suicide in their high school).

Ironically, the three patients I had who requested suicide/death from me all suffered from the same medical problem: Hyponatremia.

All lived once we got their electrolyte imbalance normalized they changed their mind.

Often the proud bring up the suicide of the samurai \ or Roman stoic, ignoring that in these societies, slaves and unwanted babies were routinely killed.

as for the caretakers: The answer is getting others to help, which is mainly done by family, churches and neighbors, and sometimes by social policies that fund caregivers.

but the dirty little secret is that getting rid of the expensive useless eaters is cost effective in a society where money, power, and self sufficiency are god.

Pope Francis is going around warning the west about this, but of course these pronouncements don't get much coverage in the news

Pope Francis  also quoted from Misericordiae Vultus, the Bull of Indiction announcing the Year of Mercy, which urges people to be close to those who are suffering “so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship and our fraternity.”
Pope Francis thanked the volunteers of the association for their sixty years of performing “works of Christian mercy”, noting “we will be judged” on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, because in “each of these ‘smallest ones’, Christ himself is present.”

a reminder:  40 million Americans are caregivers who sacrifice time, money, and often quit their job or cut back their working hours to do so.