But women lose their family and social supports once they are categorized as non-breeders and are no longer a source of nurturance. They are discarded as socially useless and wind up in an earthbound limbo. Once disabled, her daily life becomes medicalized, isolated and impoverished. When feminists contend that assisted suicide is a choice and a private matter, they are harboring a paternalistic notion of privacy. All women and girls face great dangers in private, which feminists are all too familiar with.
Private family matters conceal incest, domestic violence, and female genital mutilation.
The sources of disabled women's difficulties, feminists should realize, almost always stem from isolation and poverty. Disabled women who want to die are virtually always depressed and in despair. The majority have experienced some sort of violence, be it emotional, physical, sexual, or financial. This violence may also take the form of neglect. They are isolated from their families and their community.