Disability History Month 2025: Disability, Life and Death
- Dr Rachael Wallace
- Nov 25
- 4 min read
November marks Disability History Month in the UK, and this year's theme is Disability, Life, and Death. We are pleased to welcome this article from Dr Rachael Wallace of the University of Dundee, who is leading research into disabilities and reasonable adjustments in the Scottish legal profession. Read on to hear from Rachael about the significance of this year's theme and the recent developments in the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, for disabled people in the Scottish legal profession today.
Disability History + the assisted suicide bill
In the late 1930s and 40s in Nazi Germany, Hitler passed a law for the forced sterilisation of people with disabilities; as a result, 400,000 people were sterilised [1]. The Nazis never formally announced the scheme called T4; it was a secret [2]. This scheme ordered the ‘euthanasia’ of people with disabilities in state-run hospitals. They were initially murdered by lethal injection, but as time went on, they used gas chambers [3]. Between 1940 and 1941 70, 273 people with disabilities were murdered for being “defective” and “degenerative.” [4]
It is important to remember this part of history when discussing the topic of disability discrimination and the assisted suicide bill in Scotland and England. The United Kingdom ratified and is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities. Article 10 of the UNCRPD states that: “every human being has the inherent right to life.” [5] It is critical to safeguard the most vulnerable in society when debating the bill. In England, the Terminally Ill Adults (End-of-Life) Bill was passed in the House of Commons in June and passed its first stage in the Lords in September [6]. The House of Lords has suggested over 900 amendments to the bill, and some peers who oppose it contend that it is neither “safe nor workable.” [7]
In Scotland, Liam McArthur MSP introduced the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill [8]. Disability groups have serious concerns about the bill's safeguards. Evidence suggests that “the bill could increase pressure on disabled people to end their own life sooner than they would otherwise choose" and “disabled people already face significant difficulties in accessing adequate support services and life opportunities [9]. These factors, rather than their end-of-life experience, could cause disabled people to access assisted dying.” [10]
In Scotland, “disabled men were three times more likely to die of COVID-19 and disabled women were 3.2 times more likely to die than their nondisabled counterparts.” [11] If a person had a learning disability, between 18 and 34 years old, they were 30 times more likely to die of COVID-19 [12]. In light of this, the disabled community have a distrust of the medical profession. A recent Scope study declared that 63% of disabled people surveyed were concerned that they would not get the treatment they needed if they fell ill with COVID-19 [13]. It is clear why there are widespread concerns about the safeguards in the assisted dying bill.
Hear more from Dr Rachael Wallace about the history of disabled rights, the impact of the assisted suicide bill, and her research at our free, online event on Monday, 8th December at 1:00pm.
The Research + The Scottish Legal Profession
The structural inequalities and ableism in society have been reflected in my own research on the legal workplace in Scotland. The evidence from the interviewees showed that many non-disabled solicitors viewed reasonable adjustments as privileges rather than as a means to level the playing field and help disabled solicitors reach their full potential. The research also revealed that the reasonable adjustment process should be person-centred. If the disabled employee is at the centre of the process, then this prevents the risk of implementing tokenistic or unsuitable reasonable adjustments. Bullying and harassment were prevalent experiences reported by the interviewees, and this feeds into a negative culture towards disability. It is important to be an ally of a disabled person and call out such behaviour.
There is a power imbalance between senior staff and junior staff. Junior staff, especially, felt they could not ask for reasonable adjustments to billable hours or working hours. The study found that the negativity towards disability also perpetuated a view that disability was akin to incompetence. To make the Scottish legal profession more inclusive, reasonable adjustments should not be viewed as privileges, and disabled solicitors should be fully supported in the workplace. Structural inequalities and ableism within the culture of the profession act as barriers to the full participation of disabled people within the profession.
Meaningful disability equality and anti-discrimination measures cannot be implemented for a day or a month. Instead, allyship and inclusivity policies must be put in place with a long-term aim of combating disability discrimination and driving positive change in the profession's culture.
This article serves as an introduction to Dr Rachael Wallace's research: ‘Disability, Reasonable Adjustments and the Scottish Legal Profession’ Equity in Education & Society. You can hear more from Dr Wallace at our free event on Monday 8th December, or read her full research article.
References:
The Wiener Library, ‘ The Oppression of People with Disabilities’ https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/oppression/disabled/ (accessed 24/11/25)
Ibid (n 1)
Ibid (n1) ; UK Disability History Month ‘UK Disability History Month 2025 – Life, Death and Disability.’ https://ukdhm.org/
Ibid (n 1)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) Article 10.
UK Parliament ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024’ https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3774
BBC News, ‘Peers suggest over 900 changes to the Assisted Dying Bill’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2drk17p942o
Scottish Parliament ‘ Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill 2024 https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/s6/assisted-dying-for-terminally-ill-adults-scotland-bill
A Bremner, ‘The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill and the European Convention on Human Rights’ (Scottish Parliament, SPICE Briefing 2025) 10 <The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill and the European Convention on Human Rights | Scottish Parliament>
Ibid 10.
Disability Wales ‘Press release – Covid-19 Inquiry Report details damning failure to protect disabled people “as too little too late” Disability Wales 2025 https://www.disabilitywales.org/press-release-uk-covid-19-inquiry-report-details-damning-failure-to-protect-disabled-people-as-too-little-too-late/
Ibid (n 11).
Scope ‘ Disabled people's Covid-19 death rate as much as 11 times higher than non-disabled people’ (Scope 2024) https://www.scope.org.uk/media/press-releases/ons-disabled-death-rate-response
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