People with disabilities need to be as fully valued as human beings, and that means the right to security of life, a speaker told the Friends of the Disabled banquet held on Friday evening.

Hosted by the Weyburn Pro-Life Association, speaker Mark Pickup of Edmonton addressed an audience of over 200 people, including disabled people and their caregivers at the McKenna auditorium.

He said the right to security of life cannot be taken for granted by all people, citing a poll that showed 73 per cent of Canadians supported what Robert Latimer did in killing his disabled daughter, Tracy. Latimer said he did it to end her suffering.

Pickup also referred to a call-in poll held by an Edmonton TV station, where 10,000 people called in to support Latimer.

"Do you think there are 10,000 people in any Canadian city who would support him killing one of his healthy children? Latimer appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming he was being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. How can it be unusual, when it's usual for second-degree murder? He said because it was motivated by love," said Pickup.

Citing the Charter of Rights and Freedom's declaration of all persons' rights to life, liberty and security of the person, Pickup asked the rhetorical question, "Where is the liberty in a truck cab filled with exhaust from a truck? Where is security of a person in murder? Don't talk to me about Robert Latimer's constitutional rights."

The bottom line, he said, is that disabled people have been rendered second-class citizens, and "the disabled community was by and large horrified that life was held in such low regard. It's a scary time to be disabled in Canada."

He wrote a letter about his concerns to the federal justice minister, Ann McClellan, and received a response that many factors have to be weighed in such situations, including estimating the value of one's life.

"Those are shocking words to come from Canada's attorney-general," he said, going on to explain he once had energy to burn but now finds it difficult to walk across a room since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

At one point he lost use of an arm, which devastated him as he is an artist, but some of the worst symptoms have abated somewhat and he is able to get around in a motorized wheelchair, and can walk very short distances.

Addressing the issue of euthanasia, Pickup said people shouldn't take the words of someone in despair and use it against them when deciding whether they should live or not.

When people learn of a new disability in their lives, a very real grieving process takes place and people need space and time in order to deal with that process, he said.

"People must grieve a loss and not be held to a death wish they thought at their lowest point in their life. Civilized societies do not do that to people now our justice minister even questions the value of my life. The severely-disabled in North America have reason to fear," said Pickup.

He cited a case in New York state where the state endorsed experiments on the disabled, regardless of whether they gave permission to participate or not. Tests have also taken place at Harvard and Princeton medical schools where testing is carried out on disabled people with HIV.

"Those who are most at risk to be killed or experimented upon are the disabled, the politically powerless," said Pickup.

He admitted to having suicidal thoughts at one point in his own life, but attributed his faith in God to giving him a reason and a purpose in life, because he has full value as a person in that faith.

His view of other disabled people was also affected, and he commented, "It was only when I faced my own handicaps I could face the handicaps of others. Today, I'm crippled on the outside but I've been healed on the inside. God has forgiven me, and Christ abides in me."

Pickup has spoken on the rights of the disabled across Canada and the U.S., and will be speaking to several school and community groups while staying for a couple of weeks in Weyburn.