Female Handicapped Activist’s Deplorable Death

A female handicapped activist, who pioneered in the expansion of rights for the handicapped, died in others’ grief.

1st-grade cerebral paralysis disabled Choi Ok-Ran (36) died of cardiac arrest at Hangang sacred Heart Hospital, Yeongdungpo-gu, Yeongdungpo-dong, Seoul, at 4 a.m. on the 26th.

While managing a street stall on wheelchair, Choi led the foundation of a cerebral paralysis research center, `Barom`, in 1993, and had been active with organizations for the handicapped like Transportation Rights For The Handicapped.

In last December, she even led a protest at Chung-gu’s Myeongdong Church, Seoul, against the fact that the government failed to consider the handicapped, who need much medical expenses, in the calculation for minimum living expenses of the National Basic Livelihood Security System.

However, her family life was not smooth.

She married a handicapped man, Kim (36), in 1992, but divorced in 1998 living alone since then. She prepared to file a lawsuit against her former husband, because her in-laws prevented her from meeting her son (9).

However, Choi, who surrendered the street stall in 2000 for the supply and demand right of minimum livelihood expenses, needed money to insist her right for her son, but she fell into a dilemma, of which she had to return the supply and demand right if the money was gathered.

As she suffered from severe depression, Choi tried to commit suicide by swallowing 20 sleeping pills on the 21st, last month, and had been on treatment at the hospital for a month.

Although Choi’s handicapped followers attempted to hold a memorial service in front of Myeondong Church on the 28th, the police stopped them. As an aftereffect, there once was heavy traffic near Kwanghwa-mun, Seoul city office, and Myeondong.

Dong-Yong Min mindy@donga.com