[ComCom] Re: [statecom-discuss] Disabity proposal need cosponsors now

[Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com]

Martina - you should certainly take a shot at this press releae - I am 
alerting the communications committee here too - Love, Grace
In a message dated 1/9/07 2:08:16 PM, adam_artist at yahoo.com writes:


> This is a pressing issue, of course, and it is also nothing new.  As 
> mentioned Martina's e-mail, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the 
> "eugenics" movement engaged in forced sterilization (many victims didn't even know 
> such procedures had been performed - it was under cover of some other "medically 
> necessary" procedure).  The targets were people of "inferior intelligence" - 
> see Edwin Black's disturbing book, _War Against the Weak_.
> 
> Eugenics was yet another manifestation of who defines who is a person with 
> rights - excluded from personhood today (not corporations, of course, who are 
> officially "people" not only by Supreme Court fiat, but also recently 
> enshrined in Massachusetts law), aside from people with disabilities, are "illegal 
> immigrants," "enemy combatants," our soldiers, all the civilians in Iraq and 
> anywhere we care to drop a bomb, and many others, not to mention nature, which 
> has no rights at all and is nothing but property (like slaves, women, 
> children, et al in the last century).
> 
> Ultimately it's all about empire, up and down the line.
> 
> Adam
> 
> Martina Robinson <martina_robinson at hotmail.com> wrote: Dear All,
> 
> I tried to post this hours ago, but it didn't work.  I don;t know why!
> 
> Sincerely,
> Martina
> 
> In the months as I’ve been busy running for office as the Green-Rainbow
> Party candidate for Lt. Governor, I have not been keeping up with the
> happenings of the disability rights movement as I normally would.  Although
> I don’t regret running for office, I am sorry that I’ve missed several 
> major
> issues in terms of disability rights and children.
> 
> For example, On November 22nd, 12-year-old Ulysses Stable was murdered by
> his father because he was autistic. Also killed this year were
> three-year-old Katie McCarron  William Lash, Ryan Davies, and Christopher
> Degroot. All of these children had autism and in some cases other
> disabilities.
> 
> In yet another example, the forced sterilization and mutilation of nine year
> old girl from Seattle in order to make her easier to care for as she grows
> up.  Please read the press release below for more details.  It is from other
> young people who are members of American Disabled for Attendant Programs
> Today (ADAPT), the disability rights group I belong to.  Youth members of
> the national disability rights organization, ADAPT, today expressed shock
> and outrage on behalf of the entire national membership of ADAPT at the news
> of nine-year-old Ashley from Seattle, whose parents had her uterus, appendix
> and breast buds removed, in addition to having her undergo hormone
> injections in order to minimize her height and weight as she grows older.
> 
> In their blog, Ashley's parents have rationalized these drastic measures to
> manipulate Ashley's size and physical maturity by saying it will be easier
> for them to care for her and involve her in family activities. "As a young
> woman with a disability, I am extremely disturbed on multiple levels by
> Ashley's situation," said Amber Smock of Chicago, Illinois. "I am angry that
> Ashley's parents, the medical establishment and society at large think it is
> acceptable to surgically and hormonally manipulate Ashley because the
> reality of her adulthood as a person with a disability is too "grotesque"
> for them. With these drastic measures, her parents and doctors are
> physically reinforcing the disrespectful attitude held by many that people
> with disabilities are all "childlike," and can be treated like property or
> science experiments." Ashley has now become a modern day symbol of the long
> and dishonorable tradition of sterilizing people with disabilities. In 1927
> the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Buck vs. Bell upheld that tradition as a
> way to "eliminate defectives from the gene pool." Today, parents and others
> rationalize sterilization by saying it will prevent any possibility of
> pregnancy from abuse.  Ashley has not been reported to be at risk of either
> abuse or pregnancy, and her parents say that her only caretakers are
> themselves and her grandmother. Ashley's parents also say in their blog that
> removal of her uterus will prevent her from having periods. For over two
> decades there have been far less invasive means of suppressing menstruation
> in women when medically indicated. It is not known why Ashley's parents
> resorted to the much more
> invasive procedure of a hysterectomy. "Perhaps even more distressing to
> those of us with disabilities," said Smock, "is that a medical ethics
> committee supports treating Ashley not as a human being, but as a "problem"
> to be managed in a way they wouldn't consider or allow for other children. 
> We have enough difficulty with the medical establishment's power over our
> lives, and its lack of recognition of disability as a social status and not
> a medical problem that must either be "cured" or "killed." "This case opens
> the door for other people with disabilities to be subject to mutilation and
> chemical castration, simply because we have a disability. The severity of
> Ashley's disability does not mean that it's okay to treat her as less than a
> full human being," continued Smock. "The impact of Ashley's situation is not
> limited to just her and her family. Ashley's mutilation has started us down
> a slippery slope where her case could very well be used as a precedent to
> damage one person with a disability after another. Instead of mutilating
> children, we need to put our energy into assuring that people with
> disabilities and their families have the support they need to age naturally
> and live lives of quality in their own homes and communities."
> 
> On behalf of ADAPT, Youth ADAPT members encourage the Seattle Children’s
> Hospital ethics committee that approved the invasive procedures to issue a
> statement acknowledging the socially and other harmful aspects of what
> Ashley's parents are now touting as the "Ashley treatment."
> 
> I would like the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party to issue a press release
> condemning these actions and encouraging parents to seek other solutions to
> their care giving problems and concerns.  I would even be happy to write
> such a press release and submit it for party approval.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Martina Robinson
> 
> 
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