Monday, May 26, 2008

A Case By Case Basis?

In 2002, then Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, apologized to the developmental disability community for the forced sterilization of thousands of people in Oregon over the course of many years. There had been an effort in our state to take away the human right to give birth. Why? There’s a few different reasons. A big one was that the common belief was that people with developmental disabilities were incapable of parenting.

Fast forward to Florida in 2008.This story comes from the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. What strikes me is that there is no real mention of what her “aide”(s)’ responsibilities were. Apparently teaching her how to care for her babies wasn’t one of them. If you actually go to the article, you’ll see some interesting comments at the end.

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