In terms of squaring that circle, we had to ask ourselves and our own organizations a lot of questions. Since Carter was a disabled woman, are we going against sister disabled women?
The reality is that the decisions they're making and the comments they're making are made because of internalized ableism. Ableism is almost like a form of racism against disability. They're looking at the situation through ableist eyes—I cannot bear to be incontinent; I cannot bear to be fat; I cannot bear to be dependent—when in reality we are all interdependent.
I would doubt very much that the people who were bringing forward litigation, the Carter case, would have changed their own oil, wired their own houses, or done their own plumbing. They had to depend on other people for certain tasks in life, as we all do.
Even to make this possible, I had to depend on technicians, on permission of the hospital, and on the head nurse to make the arrangements and the approvals that were necessary for me to speak to you today, and I had to depend on the nurses who had to help me with the bodily functions that were necessary to get me here.
Autonomy—