[Ohio-talk] Disabilities and their portrayal

[David Andrews]

Are you familiar with Dr. Adrienne Asch, a blind bio-ethesist who 
recently passed away.  She fought this stuff for years.  She 
addressed nfb convention this year, which can be found in the 
August-September Braille Monitor.

Dave

At 10:21 AM 1/30/2014, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>
>
>I made quite a stir in my medical ethics class this morning.  We were asked
>to consider an example from our book, which concerned a 10 year old boy who
>was according to the book having all these horrible issues as a result of
>CP.  Some of the things the book claimed about this boy were not
>characteristics of CP at all, and it even claimed that CP was genetic itself
>rather than caused by complications.  The question was, "Is it moral to kill
>Johnny via lethal injection to end his pain and the suffering of his
>parents?"  I wasn't going to say anything at first, but then I started
>questioning things.  Is it moral to kill someone if you think they're in
>pain, but they don't have the autonomy to tell you whether they are or not?
>Is it moral to kill a child when his parents are making the request?  Is it
>moral to make this decision without full and accurate knowledge of what the
>condition really is?
>
>
>
>And you know what happened?  When I contradicted the book the professor was
>first flustered, then when I started answering questions with the knowledge
>I had he told me I was ahead of the curve, and proceeded with his lecture,
>using the false information and pretenses the book provided.  I was shocked.
>This is a class of pre-med majors (and me who is the only non-medical
>specific person in the class), and it boggled me that this sort of stuff
>would be fed to the next generation of doctors, dietitions, exercise
>scientists, etc.  I know this is just an undergraduate class, but shouldn't
>doctors always take a patient-centered approach, or a human-centered
>approach for that matter?  And I'm reminded of "The Right to Live in the
>World," and how what that speech says applies to this situation.  The
>misinformation in my bioethics textbook only substantiates the claim that
>people with disabilities lead miserable or terribly painful lives, and that
>misninformation in the minds and hands of future doctors is a scary thing to
>me.
>
>
>
>Anyway, just thought I'd continue discussion on this topic with others who
>will get it.  I'm sorry if I ranted a little; I got a little passionate on
>this issue.
>
>
>
>Kaiti Shelton
>
>University of Dayton---2016
>
>Music Therapy Major, Psychology Minor, Clarinet
>
>Ohio Association of Blind Students, President
>
>NFB Community Service Group, Service Project Committee Chair
>
>Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma