Breadcrumb Trail
Session D: Eugenics, Euthanasia & People with Disabilities: The Past, The Present, The Future?
- Date and Time
- Wednesday, April 23, 8:45 AM to 10:15 AM
- Presenters
-
- Thomas Link (Advisor, Student Support Services (SSS); Students Advocating Potential Ability (SAPA); University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
- Description
This presentation has been developed over several years and I continue to attempt to keep it up-to-date with current events. I have compiled the information from a wide variety of resources, primarily from web sites. The purpose of the presentation is to demonstrate how current attitudes about people with disabilities have been formed through centuries of discrimination. My presentation starts with Aristotle declaring that those "born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason." He goes on to say that "no deformed child shall live" and advocated for a law allowing "exposure" of infants which meant leaving them outside, vulnerable to weather and predators. The presentation will show how many very well respected and educated men (and they were all Caucasian males) throughout history, right up to the present, advocated for segregation, sterilization, and killing of individuals with disabilities.
Current attitudes are based on a long standing foundation so will not be changed quickly or easily. The presenter's opinion is that due to a variety of facts, especially the ever increasing high cost of medical care, some ethicists, such as Peter Singer, will continue to advocate for infanticide of people with severe disabilities. People like Jerry Lewis will continue to beat the drum of pity in order to raise money. Movies like Million Dollar Baby will continue to teach us that we are doing a person with a severe disability a favor by killing them and putting them out of their misery. Parents will continue to force their children to undergo incredibly invasive surgeries so they can't physically develop into adults. This presentation addresses the most fundamental right. Mike Ervin described this issue in an article about Harriet McBryde Johnson in New Mobility Magazine as "the seminal disability issue--the right to exist."
My presentation concludes with examples of heroes who are fighting these trends. People like Ed Roberts, Justin Dart, Harriet McBryde Johnson, Diane Coleman, Judy Heumann, and others are discussed. I also mention that several unsung heroes participate in demonstrations fighting these negative attitudes.
The desired outcome of this presentation is to put things in perspective by demonstrating the long history of negative attitudes towards people with disabilities, to discuss current events and to speculate about the future. It is hoped that audience members leave the session thinking about how this long history impacts their own attitude towards people with disabilities and what each person can do to change those attitudes. Henry Holden, award winning advocate for people with disabilities in the media, says "attitudes are the real disability." Based on the long history presented, the message is that it will take a lot of hard work to change those attitudes and not much else will change until attitudes are changed.