The title of this blog is also the title of the most thought provoking and interesting round table discussion I attended at the conference this week. In my opinion, Sheila Hollins was the most powerful presenter from the group because she had some really personal details to provide basis for the rest of her ideas on euthanasia/physician assisted dying. She has two children with IDD and one of them, her daughter, was involved in an assault that left her with a major spinal injury. The doctor had to be persuaded into resuscitating her by Sheila because he had assumed that her quality of life was already poorer than that of the general public and saving her, leaving her paralyzed, would just make it that much worse. Another powerful story shared by one of the members of the audience was about how a patient with IDD was sent to die due to a UTI. This brings to a light the particular issue of general practitioners’ lack of training with intellectual disabilities. For something as important as dying, you would think the doctor recommending and signing off for this would specialize in IDD if they were working with IDD patients. After the round table was over, I went up to speak with Sheila Hollins who mentioned that she now works as a member of the House of Lords. My great aunt was formerly the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords and I figured they had to have had some overlap in the field. It turns out my aunt was one of the leaders in passing a bill for assisted suicide for the terminally ill. This sparked a conversation I’d never thought I’d be having with my aunt but I can’t thank these particular presenters enough for making me so curious and invigorated and empowered.