[Ohio-talk] Disabilities and their portrayal

[Lillie Pennington]

Hi Kaiti and All,

Forgive me if I am repeating what has been already said. 
I was quite disturbed by what happened in this classroom and the question
itself. 
Is it really that doctors decision, who in most cases is a distant isolated
factor in that persons life? Is it even the parents decision, who supposedly
know what is best for their children? Only you know what you can handle/are
capable of. Can these people who lack the true understanding honestly truly
make these unbiased decisions based on just cold, hard, facts and not their
personal opinions of what they think is best? Even, for example a parent who
is blind and has a child who is blind cannot truly make these decisions
based on what they think is best. Times have changed most likely and that
persons experiences are tainting their decision. As Atticus Finch said in To
Kill a Mockingbird, you can not truly understand someone until you have
truly walked a mile in their shoes. 
I know in the context of the book it was a completely different situation,
but I think it can be applied here and in many other situations. 
For example, if I as a visually impaired person have a child that turns out
to have a condition that they are unable to walk and are in a wheel chair, I
as a person with a disability cannot simply think that they have no chances
of a successful life and must take actions to ensure that that child does
not have to face life at all. My efforts would most likely be helping that
child transition and having as functional of a life as they could. 
Of course, I am assuming and it would depend on what that child wanted. 

I have one more thing that could be considered very contrivertial. There are
prenatal tests that can determine whether a child has certain medical
conditions, such as downs syndrome. I am not sure although I think they are
on the market, but what if the mother undergoes the test, finds out her
child has downs, and then aborts the child? What if it gets to a point where
hair color and other surface traits can be tested for? 

These are my opinions and I hope I haven't offended anyone. I apologize for
the slightly rambling tone of this. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
Shelton
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 11:21 AM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List
Subject: [Ohio-talk] Disabilities and their portrayal

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

 

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