Wheelchair Bound?

By: James LaBelle

Narrated by: Kody Walker

Popular media likes to tell stories such as "Me Before You" and "Million Dollar Baby" that portray death as preferable to living with paralysis. Now, Canada has made Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) available to anyone with a disability. Is the government telling us death is preferable to paralysis as well? If given opportunities and resources, would people choose death?

In 1969, at the age of 18, I dove off a dock into Lake Independence and became a C 5/6 quadriplegic. I have some use of my arms and can push a manual wheelchair and drive a van with hand controls.

For over fifty years, I have been pushing my chair. I graduated from law school and passed the bar exam in three states. My travels took me to twenty-three countries. My story is not an inspirational anecdote. It's about perseverance, finding love, losing love, grief, joy, and single parenthood.

Don't call me "bound" or "confined" to my wheelchair. My chair gives me freedom.

A wheelchair user today has more rights than one did fifty years ago. Yet, there are still many obstacles in finding housing, transportation, employment, and medical care.

I am not trying to be a role model, just a possibility. There are obstacles, and people may not always treat you properly, but there is progress. My story is one of many that doesn't choose death over paralysis. It's just a story that doesn't get told often enough.

©2023 James LaBelle (P)2024 James LaBelle