The Alliance Center for Independence joins other disability rights organizations and advocates in condemning the movie, Me Before You, which opens in theaters this Friday. Me Before You is a story of a wealthy young man who, after becoming paralyzed, chooses to end his life through physician assisted suicide means. He does this in order so that he is no longer a "burden" to his caretaker, whom he falls in love with.
The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), Not Dead Yet and the Center for Disabled Rights in NYC object to the way the film portrays people with disabilities: that we are a burden to the rest of us, that killing oneself is better than living with a disability and that people with disabilities can not have a fulfilling life and make contributions to the community like non-disabled people.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2016 - Disability rights activists from New Jersey's centers for independent living, Liberty Resources in Philadelphia and ADAPT of Philadelphia, and other disability organizations representing people with disabilities, will be holding a demonstration at Princeton University on May 27, 2016. Time: 1 pm to 3 pm.
Demonstrators will assemble in front of the Robertson Building, located on 20 Washington Street on the campus. The Robertson Building houses the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs.
Activists want Princeton University to end the ongoing practice of institutionalized discrimination against students with disabilities, especially those with "invisible" disabilities. Organizers also want Princeton to publicly denounce Princeton Professor Peter Singer, who advocates ending the lives of disabled infants through denial of health care. Activists want Princeton to take steps to address what the activists describe as a culture of disability and oppression at the campus.
