‘Dear Noel, Is Life Really Not Worth Living?’

Liz Carr, a disabled broadcaster for the BBC, has penned a heart-wrenching open letter to Noel Martin, a British man paralyzed after being attacked by neo-Nazis who wants to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide. A few excerpts:

As for not being able to touch the world around you — from an onlooker’s point of view this again just isn’t true. You appear to touch the world in so many ways.

You have staff who clearly respect you and enjoy working for you. You have family, a grandson, and friends. Through the neo-Nazi attack that led to your accident, you have become a celebrity, a campaigner against racism, a fighter for justice. You have organized exchanges for young people from Berlin to come to Birmingham to show them that integration is possible.

You have written your autobiography. In fact Noel, it seems to me that since becoming disabled you have actually touched more people and embraced life in ways that perhaps you wouldn’t have if you hadn’t had your accident. You are very much alive . . . .

Like you, I became disabled. But for me it was at the age of seven, following a childhood illness.

I know adapting to your new life and situation can be difficult. I remember as a teenager being too unwell to go out with my friends, thinking I’d always have to live with my parents, and that I’d have no choice but to rely on my mum to look after me. Life wasn’t much fun and at times I didn’t see any point in the future.

Today, I have the assistance I need that allows me to live in my own home, to have friends, a partner, and a career as a comedian. In other words, I have a life I could never have imagined back then.

How? I was lucky enough to get support, advice, and information from other disabled people who’ve been in my situation, who showed me that there was another way and who taught me how to get what I need to live my life . . . .

I know when people read your story, many will agree that yes, if they were in your situation then they would want to die too. Most people are so scared of illness, of disability, of getting older, that wanting assisted suicide is seen as an entirely rational desire. What scares me is that views like these will also be held by the doctors, the media, the courts, the government, and all the others who have the power to decide if we live or die.