It is no surprise that 72 percent of those who died from Kevorkian had a recent decline in health status. While becoming disabled isn't easy for anyone, certain aspects of it are harder for women than men. Women's sense of self-worth is still closely tied to their body image. Having one's body change in unexpected, radically devalued ways makes women believe they are less physically and sexually attractive. Perhaps the worst effect of sexism is internalized oppression.
Sexism is often so pervasive that it seems natural.
Girls are taught by mothers and aunts to avoid the construction site or look demurely downward when catcalls begin. The combination of external and internal oppression causes far too many women to find themselves in situations to which they see no alternative but death. Women's attempts at suicide often fail because they are responses to and products of a particular kind of oppression. These attempts are deeply ambivalent and too often done in hope that this desperate cry for help will motivate someone to rescue them. Women with disabilities are no different.