A 'thank you' from Not Dead Yet (UK)

Not Dead Yet UK is a network of disabled people, founded in the UK in 2006, to oppose the legalised killing of disabled people.  An appreciation of Ali was posted on its website on 6 December 2013

We say farewell and 'thank you' to Alison Davis

‘Alison Davis was born with spina bifida. She later developed conditions including osteoporosis, arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Coping with these permanently disabling and painful conditions dominated but did not define her life. Indeed, they led her to champion the rights of the vulnerable, the disabled and the unborn, first as an atheist and then as a Catholic.’ (Obituary Catholic Herald 3 December 2013)

Not Dead Yet (UK) has always valued Alison’s thinking and work, and her experience of a disabled life worth living. She was particularly dedicated to the defence of disabled children and babies. We have never pretended that we saw eye-to-eye on every subject. But then Alison herself often pointed out she didn’t see eye-to-eye with her earlier self either. We certainly agreed on this: legalizing euthanasia is something we must resist at all costs. NDY (UK) is first and foremost a coalition, with one focus. So in the true spirit of standing together against euthanasia and this wider attack on disabled people, she was always generous with her time and thoughts.

Her thinking was deeply affected by Louise, the baby euthanased in 1979 because of the same impairments as her own, by deliberate starvation and dehydration. She was one of the first to protest vociferously against what has now become possible in Holland under the Gronignen Protocol. If her response to that shocking case led her to a different place from our own, that does not in any way negate our respect for her determination and the work she demanded of herself from her conviction, and which also led her and Colin (Harte) to set up a charity supporting disabled children in Southern India in 1995. Her work for No Less Human focused on the killing of disabled babies. Given that the law in the UK allows for termination of pregnancy right up to the moment before birth, she fought for people to recognize this as part of the same discrimination against disabled people that allowed for their termination after birth. 

She shared our resistance to the dangers of legalizing euthanasia. She cited her own feelings as evidence, that if people were legally encouraged to make end-of-life choices at the time, she might not have survived her own despair.  In taking the steps to speak openly about those moments, she opened the door to many to understand that we can all experience such ‘lows’, but even when they are very long-lasting (10 years in her case) we can find a new meaning in our lives. Her disability was not irrelevant, but as the quote above says, those impairments and life-limiting conditions did not define the person. Too many of those who want us gone miss this crucial point: seeing we are disabled is not a reason for assuming we should want to die.

We mourn her passing and are grateful to have known her and for the contribution she made to our debates and campaigns. A woman of principal we will miss her.

Ali being interviewed at a rally outside Parliament on 12 May 2006, the day that Not Dead Yet UK was officially launched at the House of Lords

Tribute on LifeSiteNews.com

This tribute to Ali, written by Alex Schadenberg, the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, was published by LifeSiteNews.com on Friday 6 December 2013:

Alison Davis, the leader of the disability rights group No Less Human, RIP

Alison meeting Pope Benedict XVI

I lost a friend and we lost a great leader on December 3. Alison Davis, who was born with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus, became the leader of the disability rights group – No Less Human in the 1990’s but Alison had already been active in the fight to protect children with disabilities from being killed based on eugenic attitudes.

Alison was one of the world’s greatest advocates for the right to life of people with disabilities. She was a tremendously caring person who effectively communicated her support of life and opposition to killing through euthanasia.

Alison first became involved in the issue of euthanasia when she wrote a moving letter concerning the killing of newborns with disabilities. In fact children with Spina Bifida were considered by academics who promote quality of life over caring that leads to children with disabilities being treated as “better off dead."

The Groningen Protocol, that was developed to permit euthanasia for children with disabilities in the Netherlands, was based on the euthanasia deaths of 22 children born with Spina Bifida.

I first became aware of Alison through her story that was published on the No Less Human website.

Alison was an incredibly effective spokesperson against euthanasia because she understood pain, suffering and depression.

Alison lived with a significant amount of suffering especially later in life when she developed conditions including osteoporosis, arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

For many years Alison wanted to commit suicide, due to living with considerable pain that led to Alison living significant depression.

Alison was blessed by her care-giver Colin Harte, who from 1987 to her death, he became a constant companion and devoted care-giver. In 1995, Alison and Colin established a charity for children with disabilities in South India who are in need of support and care.

Alison provided me with a great gift, at a conference in Rome, when she allowed me to bring her forward to receive a blessing from Pope Benedict, which also enabled me to meet the Pope.

In my life, I have only met a few people like Alison who always expressed true love and compassion for people needing care and compassion.

Her leadership, her caring personality, her understanding of depression, and her human vitality will be missed.

We lost a real leader, but we continue to be inspired by her life.

Alison Davis with Colin Harte in Rome

SPUC's tribute to Ali

Ali worked for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) for 30 years.  John Smeaton, SPUC's chief executive, wrote a tribute to Ali on his blog, on the day she died:

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Alison Davis, leader of SPUC's division for disabled people, is mourned

Alison Davis, the leader of No Less Human, the division for disabled people within SPUC, died this morning at 08:40 GMT, aged 58. She had been unwell for several years, and a long-term difficulty in eating resulted in her sad passing this morning.

In a statement earlier this morning, I said:

"Everyone in SPUC and the whole pro-life movement will be greatly saddened at her passing. Frail in body, she was full of strength in defence of the most defenceless human beings - disabled unborn children. Her keen insight and uncompromising solidarity have proved a powerful defence for the sick and disabled targeted with euthanasia. Her own early struggle with temptations to suicide made her an exceptional witness that life is always worth living. Alison's strong Catholic faith and her love of children moved her to care for disabled children in India. Countless people touched by her life will now be praying that Alison, her family and her friends will receive the peace they seek."

Fr John Fleming, SPUC's bioethical consultant, said:

"Alison was a great pro-life warrior, and a wonderful example to us all of one who accepted her sufferings with astonishing equanimity. I also wish to pay tribute to Colin Harte, whose care for Alison was heroic, constant, and expert, and who greatly enhanced Alison's quality of life in every possible way."

Alison Davis and SPUC's division for disabled people ("No Less Human")

Alison Davis, who led SPUC’s No Less Human since 1982, had spina bifida and was a major commentator on anti-life philosophies and policies which discriminate, lethally, against disabled people http://www.spuc.org.uk/about/no-less-human/alison No Less Human, SPUC’s division for disabled people, their loved ones and carers http://www.spuc.org.uk/about/no-less-human/about promotes the equal status, worth and rights of disabled people, including the most fundamental right of all – the  right to life, from conception to natural death. In spite of serious illness, Alison continued to write, publish and broadcast on the eugenic nature of the Abortion Act and on healthcare, government policies, which treat disabled lives as expendable – including major interviews on BBC’s Newsnight, the BBC World Service’s series Heart and Soul: Choosing Life and leading letters in the national newspapers throughout Britain. In addition, in August 2009 she published a paper showing how euthanasia has spread, starting with the 1992 Bland judgment, and how it has expanded as a result of the 2005 Mental Capacity Act and came to be implemented through the Liverpool Care Pathway.

In September 1982, in my report to SPUC’s national council, I proposed that Alison Davis should be asked to join the Council to represent SPUC’s Handicap Division, now known as No Less Human. The minutes state that my proposal "was warmly agreed by the Council".

Alison's early involvement in SPUC

Not long before, Alison, who had previously been in favour of abortion, had changed her mind on the issue, having read about a baby named Louise born in High Wycombe Hospital who was found to have both spina bifida and hydrocephalus. In Alison’s words:

"Her paediatrician, Dr. Donald Garrow, persuaded her parents that she would be ‘better off dead’ as she would be unable to walk, and would thus compare herself unfavourably with her two able-bodied sisters ...  Dr. Garrow made a video of her last days which was shown on daytime TV, and which I saw. Louise's face was grey, her eyes sunken. I wrote to Dr. Garrow at the hospital and explained that I was disabled to just the extent that Louise had been, and that I felt he had made a horribly wrong decision. In response he invited me to speak to his ‘team’ at the hospital, which I accepted. I cannot remember exactly what I said, but I pointed out that life with spina bifida and hydrocephalus could be full and happy, and that it was in any case wrong to deliberately kill any child on grounds of his/her disability."

Alison remained at the helm of SPUC’s work for disability rights ever since, speaking at SPUC’s Mother Teresa Rally in 1983 and joining SPUC's full-time staff in 2000.

Obituary in Bournemouth Daily Echo

Alison Davis

This is the obituary published by the Daily Echo on Friday 12 December 2013:

PRO-life campaigner and charity founder Alison Davis died at home in Milborne St Andrew on Tuesday, December 3, aged 58.

Paralysed from the waist down with spina bifida, which confined her to a wheelchair from the age of 14, her life was defined by a determination to overcome the limits imposed by her condition.

Born in Bolton on January 8, 1955, Mrs Davis grew up in Stevenage before attending the University of Essex in Colchester, where she studied sociology.

At the time she was pro-abortion, but news reports of doctors starving disabled newborns and terminating unborn children gradually changed her views.

Remaining at the university after her degree, where she worked as a secretary, she joined the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and later joined their Handicap Division (No Less Human), becoming a high-profile defender of the pro-life rights of disabled people.

It was in Colchester that she met her husband of ten years, whom she married in 1975, but they separated in 1985 at the beginning of a very difficult period in her life.

Mrs Davis, who suffered from several painful and disabling conditions, including osteoporosis, arthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, experienced ten difficult years after her separation, in which she made several suicide attempts.

Gradually over the early 1990s she found the strength to overcome her difficulties and personal sorrows, with the help of her friends and carers, and a new-found faith.

Although raised a Christian she was an atheist for many years, and she explored other religions during this time. However, after reading the Bible she came to view Catholicism as her faith.

In 1987 she met Colin Harte, who was working for the SPUC, and he became her carer and devoted companion. The same year she moved to Milborne St Andrew, near Bere Regis, where she lived for the rest of her life.

The great transformation in her life came in 1995, when she and Mr Harte visited a disabled children’s centre in southern India, and she was greatly moved by the plight of the young people she met.

A simple fundraising appeal they set up grew in time into a full-blown charity, Enable, supporting disabled youngsters at two children’s centres.

She said the children had given her a love of life, and this was the reason she campaigned against voluntary euthanasia, which she described as the “hallmark of a society that has given up on its most vulnerable members”.

She argued that had she been given the option to take her own life between 1985 and 1995 she would have taken it, and would never have had the chance to turn her life around.

During the 1990s Mrs Davis befriended an American death row inmate, Sammy Felder, who had been convicted of killing a disabled man in his care.

A life-long opponent of the death penalty, she was moved by his plight despite his crime, and witnessed his execution in December 1999, the last to take place in the US before the new millennium.

She was awarded a Clarins Woman of the Year award, Britain’s Most Inspiring Woman from Marie Claire magazine and a Catholic Woman of the Year award.

Mrs Davis came to believe there was value in suffering, but never complained of her difficulties to others, and she was always very modest about her achievements.

She loved music, nature and the countryside around her home, and was happiest when among her friends.

A Requiem Mass will be held today at 12pm at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in High West Street,
Dorchester. She will then be buried in the cemetery at St Andrew’s Church, Milborne St Andrew.

Ali skype interview 2011

The online version of the Daily Telegraph obituary included a You Tube video of Ali from 2011, in which she gave an interview by Skype to a Canadian group opposing euthanasia called Vivre dans la Dignité (Living with Dignity). 

Daily Telegraph Obituary

I will post some obituaries and other notices about Ali that appeared after she died, before going on to post other items.

The obituary in the Daily Telegraph was published in the paper on 12 December, and appeared online the previous day.

___________________________________________________________________________

Alison Davis - obituary

Alison Davis campaigned against legalising assisted suicide despite her own suffering

Alison Davis

Alison Davis , who has died aged 58, was a severely disabled woman who became a prominent campaigner against the legalisation of assisted suicide, a campaign which was all the more potent because for many years she had wanted to end her own life.

Alison Davis was born on January 8 1955 with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and later developed emphysema, osteoporosis and arthritis. By her thirties her spine was collapsing, trapping nerves and causing excruciating pain. Confined to a wheelchair from the age of 14, she needed full-time care.

As a young adult, Alison Davis tried to live as normal a life as possible. She read Sociology at university and married in 1975. But in 1985 her marriage failed and, unable to cope, she tried to kill herself on several occasions.

Friends found her in time, however, and she survived. “I had a settled wish to die that lasted over 10 years,” she wrote later, “and at that time doctors thought (wrongly as it turns out) that I had only a very short time to live.” If “voluntary” euthanasia had been a legal choice at the time, she said, she would have requested it.

A combination of factors had helped her to see that she had a worthwhile future, including her growing involvement in charity work, though another key factor was her gradual conversion to Roman Catholicism.

As a young woman she had stopped believing in God and had supported a woman’s “right to choose”; but her attitude changed after she read newspaper reports of the case of a baby girl who had been born in hospital with the same disabilities as hers, but who had been sedated and, in the terminology of the time, allowed to succumb to the inevitable “with dignity”. Shocked to think that she, too, might have suffered the same fate, in 1981 she wrote a letter to the Guardian attacking the “killing” of newborn disabled babies.

As a result she was contacted by the pro-life Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) which sought to convince her that killing a newborn disabled child was merely an extension of the legalised practice of aborting the unborn. From 1983 Alison Davis began working for SPUC’s new Handicap Division (later renamed No Less Human), and after two pilgrimages to Lourdes she was received into the Catholic Church in 1991.

In the years that followed she became a leading spokeswoman not only in opposition to attempts to introduce legislation allowing assisted suicide, but on such matters as abortion, genetic screening and embryonic stem cell research, which she acknowledged might potentially help people with conditions like hers, but opposed on the basis of the belief that life begins at the moment of conception.

In 1987 Alison Davis had met Colin Harte, who was working for SPUC and later wrote Changing Unjust Laws Justly; Pro-Life Solidarity with the Last and the Least (2005). He became her carer and companion, and in 1995, with his help, she set up Enable, a charity for disabled children in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It gave her a renewed purpose in life and on her birthday in 2001 the charity opened its first new home, named after her.

“Every time I go to India I think 'I don’t know if I can do this any more.’ Then I see all my children, lined up waiting to see me, and I know that it’s all worthwhile,” she explained. “They all call me 'mummy’.”

In 2002 Alison Davis won the Clarins Woman of the Year title for her charity work, and the following year was named Britain’s most inspirational woman in a competition organised by the Body Shop and Marie Claire magazine.

Alison Davis, born January 8 1955, died December 3 2013

Happy Birthday Ali

8 January 2013

Looking at the photo taken at Ali's last birthday I realise how unwell she was then. I cannot recall thinking at the time, though, that she would not be here for her next one. I know I am not alone in missing Ali and that others are also sad not to be able to wish Ali a happy birthday in person.Nevertheless, today is a day to give thanks for Ali's life and for the years she was with us.