[NFBMT] When You Are A Blind Patient

[Jim Marks]

I definitely support planning ahead to make sure we get what we want from
the medical system, but we are fooling ourselves if we de-emphasize the fact
that the blind and other people with disabilities are at an extreme
disadvantage within the medical model.  Knowing who we are and what we are
up against is vital for self-determination.  Patient beware is always good
advice.

BTW, the medical model spills over into many human services.  For instance,
people with disabilities won the right to choose our own vocational goal in
the public vocational rehabilitation system in 1992.  Before then, the
professionals held the power.  Today, thanks to the NFB and other parts of
the disability rights movement, professionals guide, and people with
disabilities decide.  Same could be said for the disability industrial
complex that gives all it has to segregate us.  Look at what's going on with
our own state government as it accentuates facility-based services over
community-based services.  Even the sub-minimum wage horror comes from the
medical model.  Somehow, we've got to shake it off our backs and live the
lives we choose for ourselves.

One more comment, and I'll let it go.  Many are unaware that the first
groups to be exterminated in Nazi Germany were people with disabilities.
Actually, the Nazis did not come up with the concept first.  It came from
the German medical establishment.  The Nazis thought it such a good idea to
get rid of undesirables with mass murder, they learned from the medical
folks and applied their methods to the rest of the Holocaust.  German
medical professionals were emboldened by a global movement for Eugenics, and
the USA was a leader in Eugenics.  Eugenics is about "cleaning up" the gene
pool by eliminating what the Germans called, "Useless Eaters," and what the
Americans called, Imbeciles."  The Germans applied the ultimate solution
while the USA mostly limited their efforts to forced sterialization.  Of
course, this is an extreme example from history, but the line between
self-determination and losing one's life can be quite thin even today.


Jim Marks
Blind.grizzly at gmail.com
(406) 438-1421

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMT <nfbmt-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of BRUCE&JOY BRESLAUER via
NFBMT
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 10:37 AM
To: nfbmt <nfbmt at nfbnet.org>
Cc: BRUCE&JOY BRESLAUER <breslauerj at gmail.com>
Subject: [NFBMT] When You Are A Blind Patient

I don't think any of us have trouble advocating for ourselves if we are
awake, aware, and conscious.  It's when we're not that I worry.  I think
it's extremely important to have someone of your choosing in your life who
can speak for you if you can't, and to make that known to the medical
profession.

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want. 

 

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