Last week, a policy statement from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit surfaced describing how they would decide who will and will not receive life-saving treatment in their facilities as COVID-19 cases begin to overwhelm their capacity. In part, it stated that “Patients who have the best chance of getting better are our first priority.”
This seemingly innocent and rational statement struck terror into the hearts of people in the disability community. Their terror is well-founded because, when it comes to allocation of scarce medical resources, disabled people all too often are seen as part of the population who don’t qualify to receive them.