The benefit of typing, and writing as a whole, is the ability to formulate thoughts in a methodical fashion. You can take your time and measure your words in a thoughtful and appropriate fashion. Yet, at the time of myself writing this, I find myself struggling to retain my composure over some news I came across hours earlier.

In England, there has been some dark discoveries found of late pertaining to Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices. Specifically, the charity Mencap has said they received reports in January 2021 from people with learning disabilities who were told they would not be resuscitated if they fell ill with COVID19.

As the article states, typically DNACPR are done for those who are too frail to benefit from CPR, however Mencap is saying some have been issued for people due to them having a learning disability. England’s Care Quality Commission is going to publish a report on this in a couple of weeks, which I await with bated breath.

I’d like to highlight three items from the article;

1. In the five weeks since the third lockdown in England began, COVID-19 accounted for 65% of the deaths for those with learning disabilities – compared to 39% for the general populace. That’s a 26% difference.
2. People aged 18 – 34 with learning disabilities are 30 times more likely to die of COVID than others the same age.
3. An analysis by the Office for national Statistics showed 6/10 COVID deaths were of people with a disability.

The curious thing is intellectual disabilities are about *the mind*. Yes some folks (like me) have physical issues, but not everyone. Yet there’s the reports of rampant DNACPR which are surfacing, to the point where England’s watchdog is compiling their own report.

There’s a few factors in play here, I think. One is those of us with learning disabilities struggle to communicate sometimes, so maybe docs aren’t picking up on stuff. We don’t behave “right”, so perhaps we’re not taken seriously. The thing is though, in England, things have taken a possibly more sinister turn. Despite the pleas of several, including leading medical professionals, those with intellectual disabilities are *not* being placed in a higher priority queue for any vaccines. Down Syndrome folks are, and that’s it (which is a stark contrast from how they’re treated in Iceland). This is despite the clear evidence I listed above that shows those with intellectual disabilities are at a *much higher risk of dying from COVID-19* than others, and those that end up getting cared for could end up dead due to a unilateral DNACPR notice they did not consent to.

At first I wanted to wait for the CQC report before reaching any conclusions, but I think the article does a fine job of outlining the situation.

People with intellectual disabilities are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.

People with intellectual disabilities are not being treated as a priority for COVID-19 vaccines.

People with intellectual disabilities who end up in a hospital are not being resuscitated simply due to having intellectual disabilities.

There’s no other way to describe it; this is the deliberate elimination of “undesirables”.

It’s eugenics.

It’s outright eugenics.

With the news from England, we shouldn’t be surprised at the false mercy provided by Bill C-7 here in Canada, where apparently removing “reasonably foreseeable death” from the assisted suicide laws wasn’t sufficient; the Senate wants to take things even further. This impacts not just those with learning disabilities, but those with mental health issues like clinical depression.

These are fundamental “pro-life” issues, which you’d think would have prominent and vocal “pro-lifers” speaking up and protesting – but that isn’t the case at all. Several “pro-lifers” fight against increased healthcare spending. The say that any conversation and efforts outside of abortion is part of a “seamless garment”, and that abortion is “paramount”. They complain about the COVID-19 vaccines and use Robert Kennedy or Children of God for Life as their references for their objections. Many of these are “firebrand” Catholics, big names with a huge following.

With the mention of Robert Kennedy, I’d like people to understand something. And if I were speaking, I would be doing so slowly and methodically because this is something I firmly believe is critical. Those who view Robert Kennedy is a “truth seeker” and say that Andrew Wakefield was a “victim of conspiracy”; what’s going on in England is exactly what Kennedy/Wakefield et all want. They seek a *cure* for autism, viewing it as a disease. They want to eliminate a disease that people have in the womb, for which there is only one solution. Why else would Autism Speaks, an organization who at one point flagrantly said they were looking to find a “cure”, fund a genome project for genetic screening?

It’s my genuine hope that the CQC report shines additional light on these matters, and action is taken. But the reality is things have been leading up to this point for some time, and not only am I not entirely sure people realize this, but I’m certain several of the people who read this blog or pay lip service towards the disabled needing assistance will forget about it after things return “back to normal”.

Which, if anyone wants to know what “privilege” is, it’s that you can return to a “normal” life after a pandemic.

Some of us had no normal life before this, during this, and we won’t have it after this either.

And to those who, after reading this, continue to say that COVID-19 “is no different than the flu”? To those that continue to say “COVID-19 is no big deal”?

Pandemic response is a disability rights issue.

We will remember.

Those of us left, anyway. After all, might end up in a hospital not get resuscitated just because of our brains.