[statecom-discuss] Disabity proposal need cosponsors now

[Ron Francis]

These accounts about Ashley are truly shocking and personally I find them very revolting.  Ashley is being treated like an animal or worse.  What will be next ?  ...  I don't even want to think about it.
   
  Why do Ashley's parents even get to make these decisions... shouldn't a court step in and block this or give Ashley the final say ?
   
  ron 
  
Adam Sacks <adam_artist at yahoo.com> wrote:
  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 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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