For this week’s seminar, Emilia Wilson will be presenting a work in progress titled “Disability, Ableism, & Assisted Dying”. The seminar will take a hybrid format, meaning you can attend online (via Teams) or in person (at Seminar Room 5GW in Castlecliffe). For more information and a link for the online meeting, please email arche-fem-soc[at]st-andrews.ac.uk.

Title: “Disability, Ableism, & Assisted Dying”

Abstract: My aim in this presentation is to present a view on which disability is constructed by ableist ideology and examine some upshots for medical ethics. I begin by contrasting medicalised and social models of disability. I propose examining ableist ideology as a methodology to identify the social location of disability, attempting to identify some core characteristics ableism. I use this account to argue that we can make no principled distinction between supposedly ‘medical’ versus ‘environmental’ suffering. If correct this means that many supposedly ‘moderate’ positions in medical policy, which carve exceptions for medicalised suffering, are flawed. I end by discussing some concerns about a recent assisted dying member’s bill entered into Scottish Parliament.