Monday, August 19, 2013

Family receives letter telling them to euthanize Autistic son

Karla Begley
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition


An Oshawa Ontario family were shocked when they received a letter from a neighbour telling them that their 13-year-old autistic son was:

a “nuisance” and a “wild animal” and then suggested that the family move or “euthanize” the child.
A City TV news report, which includes a video interview stated:
Karla Begley told CityNews her son Max, 13, stays with his grandmother in the morning during the summer time. It was at that home in Newcastle where letter was delivered on Friday. 
“I was shaking when I was reading it,” Brenda Millson, Max’s grandmother, told CityNews. “It’s awful words. 
You don’t know why somebody would ever do such a thing.”
An article in the Toronto Star reported:
The stranger wanted to tell Maxwell Begley’s family that no woman would ever love him, no employer would ever hire him, and that he should move into the woods, or be euthanized.  
The writer calls Maxwell a “hindrance to everyone,” says he will always be like that and suggests that whatever “non-retarded body parts he possesses” be donated to science.  
“Do the right thing and move or euthanize him!!! Either way, we are ALL better off!!!” 
The Toronto Star article also reported:
Julie Smith, who lives across from Millson, canvassed the neighbourhood with a friend on Sunday to tell people about the letter. She also wanted to observe people’s body language. 
“Everyone seemed rather appalled by it; one lady burst into tears. ... 
When Smith heard that a television crew was coming Sunday evening, she posted the news on Facebook and asked people to come out to support the family. More than 120 people came, some from as far away as Oshawa. They cheered when Maxwell and his father left the house. Maxwell did “his little happy dance,” Begley says, laughing. 
“He just jumps up and down and flaps his arms, and gave everyone high fives. He’s going to expect that every time he’s there,” she says, laughing.
The Durham Police are investigating the incident.
As a father of a teenage son who is autistic, I have experienced the negative attitudes that many people within society have towards people with disabilities. 

The concept that a person with autism or another disability is "better off dead" is sadly not uncommon.
Legalizing euthanasia threatens the lives of people with disabilities. Negative attitudes affect the person with a disability, causing that person to believe that they are unwanted.
Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide sends vulnerable people the message that some lives are not worth living.

On August 20 the Durham Police stated that this letter did not represent a hate crime.

4 comments:

sestroc said...

I'm beginning to suspect that many more people than we realize are really on the spectrum of autism -- many very gifted people, possibly including the complaining neighbor (!) Isn't one of the 'symptoms' a fearful reaction to the unexpected or erratic, after all?

Unknown said...

I stand on the christian biblical teaching by Jesus Himself who gave His life that many would be healed and delivered from phyiscal and spiritual bondage. Autism is not of God, Jesus siad, "I came to give life and to give it more abundantly." John 10:10 KJ. If yu havn't already, believe for complete healing and restoration of this condition IN JESUS NAME, KJ. ...if you have a question sonjagrins@gmail.com Sonja Grinstead God bless you as you seek for truth!

Unknown said...

Let me encourage you! I just lost my husband of 35 years to "" 27 "" different drugs a day, plse plse know that DRUGS IS NOT THE ANSWER, we need to know the grace, mercy, and love of the God of Abraham to tap into the supernatural healing that is provided for mankind to those "who believe" plse plse turn to the divine source of the blood covenant of the new test on our behalf, plse plse believe there's more than man's pills and man's unsuccessful direction! I'm a licensed minister of 25 years and am a "healing testimony" and a physical miracle of the miraculous, I should be dead long ago by the mouth of medical specialists, question? sonjagrins@gmail.com Sonja Grinstead I'm here for you!

Unknown said...

MEDICAL SPECIALISTS TOLD ME I HAVE LESS THAN @ YEARS TO LIVE, AND LESS BEFORE I'M TOTALLY BLIND, @% YEARS LATER I'M NOT DEAD AND I'M NOT BLIND, because of the miraclous anointing of God for miraclous healings which came upon me "because I believed the Bible, KJ., and now am drug free and have lived long after my death sentence. qustion? sonjagrins@gmail.com if you want divine intervention...