Humans Without Rights on “The Island”

Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson are clones on the run in
Michael Bay’s futuristic action film The Island.

Despite people like self-proclaimed atheist and disability rights attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson (Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo: article in Slate, NPR audio link) advocating otherwise, many argued that only extreme religious-right fanatics saw the Terri Schiavo issue as anything but being about a patient’s wishes and her husband’s right to act on her behalf regarding those wishes. (Ms. Johnson argued that “Florida law would not allow a husband to kill a nondisabled wife by starvation and dehydration; killing is not ordinarily considered a private family concern or a matter of choice.”) Some of these types of issues are now raised, of all places, in a Hollywood film — The Island (read review).

“Who is human – and on what basis? If the definition is fluid (as moral relativists of the scientific community would have it), will you always make the cut?” is the question posed by Don Feder in his film review and commentary CULTURE OF DEATH BUILDS A BRIDGE TO “THE ISLAND”. Because of the ebb and flow of symptoms and problems, “making the cut” is something that often concerns those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. Whether those symptoms make someone any less human is something everyone should decide for him- or herself, while he or she still can.

Additional reading:

The Island review

Ability magazine interview of Harriet McBryde Johnson: Civil Rights Attorney

Too Late To Die Young:book by Harriet McBryde Johnson

Related posts:

1. The Culture of Life — The Culture of Death
2. Do Your Allergies a Favor: Do NOT Make Your Bed
3. A Better Way to Ensure that Your Health Care Choices are Honored
4. Protection for the Disabled
5. Understanding Autoimmune Illness

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