We feel that we must write in response to the article by Kevin Toolis on 'Hate that dare notspeak its name'. The article starts well, explaining the language, assumptions and prejudices that disabled people face from the media and how this contributes to disabled people's oppression - the most extreme form of oppression is losing your right to life because it is assumed that it has no value. This is the issue at the heart of Mary and Jodies case. Mr Toolis is also correct in saying that the voices and opinions of disabled people have not been heard in this debate - this is not because we have not been expressing our opinions but because they are being ignored. We know that the Guardian has received a number of letters from disabled activists but have printed none of them. We are therefore completely puzzled as to why Mr Toolis feels that the logical conclusion to his reasoning is that Mary must be killed, in order for Jodie to live. In arguing against non-disabled people judging disabled people's quality of life, Kevin Toolis makes exactly the same mistake - he goes on to judge Mary's quality of life as worthless but says it is not an issue regarding Jodie's quality of life. This must be purely on the basis that, whilst Jodie will have some physical impairments, Mary's impairments would be regarded as "more severe" and would include learning disability. This grading of impairments is exactly what leads to these dubious decsions on judging "quality of life" in the first place. Another point that seems to be missed from the debate is that Mary and Jodie's parents came to the UK for medical assistance for their children. They now find that the people in a foreign country who were supposed to help them want to end the life of one of their children against their wishes. If this had happened to British citizens abroad, we are sure that the reporting of the situation would have been very different. If the courts decide tomorrow to go ahead with the separation operation , it will be an immense setback for the disabled people's struggle in asserting our right to life. from Dorothy Mallon and Lucy Wilkinson |