ABSTRACT
Human impairment and its associated grief have signicantly impacted people’s lives from time immemorial. Although often rationalized in some positive way, attitudes and practices in response to these realities do not always reect humane and compassionate group values. In competitive societies, attributes such as competence, physical attractiveness, intelligence, charm, and personal autonomy are esteemed as group ideals. Whether overtly articulated or developed as a shadow characteristic of the society, marginalization, rejection, and abhorrence of those who fall too
far from acceptable standards may occur as a result of perceived threats to the integrity and viability of large group identity. Hence, people with chronic illness, deformities, and permanent disabling and debilitating conditions are devalued and often considered deviant, sometimes to such an extent as to be rendered socially invisible. Correspondingly, as Cheytz (2000) has noted, intermittently throughout recorded history a series of ideas not initially seen as related to each other have consistently converged. These ideas include: suicide, euthanasia, infanticide, maternal or paternal licide, eugenics, genocide, and, more recently, physician-assisted suicide.
