Free Republic

As the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition I have had the opportunity to read stories of despair and other stories of hope. The story that I am writing about today is one of the greatest stories of hope. This is the story of Lilliana Dennis, a child who is living with Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition that many doctors have labelled as "incompatible with life." This is a story of a child who was not supposed to live. A child who has a condition that most doctors would refuse to provide treatment for and let to die,...

While one woman’s video about her decision to reject an abortion of her disabled son is resonating with millions of views, another mother tells a British newspaper that, upon finding out her son would have disabilities, she “knew” she had to abort him.Sara Carpenter writes at the London Daily Mail newspaper, “I saw my son’s bleak future and knew I had to abort him.” Feeling my unborn son move inside me should have been a joyous moment midway through my pregnancy — a milestone that took me closer to welcoming my third child into the world. Instead, every tiny movement...

The book by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, Die Freigabe der Venrichtung lebensunwerten Lebens (allowing the destruction of life unworthy of living) which came out in Germany in 1920 has at last been translated into Italian (in English it is: Permitting the Destruction of Unworthy Life: Its Extent and Form, translated by W.E. Wright, in Issues in Law and Medicine 1992, 8:231-265). I say “at last”, because this is a text that marks a watershed. It has inspired many important reflections that are only partially explained in the introduction on 19th-century history – very concentrated at the legal level –...

Reading through the Slate article: Rick Santorum, Meet My Son, I find myself torn. As another mom in the trenches, I can genuinely feel her love for her son, and the agony of watching him suffer. She is in the battle, and in the battle, sometimes all we can feel is the battle. Also, though, I wish we could sit down for coffee and talk about who her baby is, inside. With my disabled child, I have to be mindful of two realities. One, that his brain is terribly broken; his life is often a battle between life and death,...

March 16, 2012 (LiveActionNews.org) - When you walk into Nicole and Steven’s house, you get the sense that they are parents who thoroughly enjoy their three kids. You’ll find Steven running down the narrow hallway while all the kids scream in delight, chasing each other and him. Nicole patiently fixes healthy meals for them while explaining to the youngest that she can’t climb up on the counter to help because the crockpot is just too hot for little hands. You’ll see Titus, their only son proudly popping wheelies in his special wheelchair while the family cheers. They are a family...

Many hotels are faced with making improvements to pools by Thursday or falling out of compliance with the latest accessibility laws for disabled people. Hoteliers must have pool lifts to provide disabled people equal access to pools and whirlpools, or at least have a plan in place to acquire a lift. If they don't, they face possible civil penalties of as much as $55,000. There are about 51,000 hotels, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and most have pools. The lifts are required by regulations made in 2010 stemming from the Americans With Disabilities Act, a civil rights...

BERLIN, January 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Berlin’s “Topography of Terror,” museum, which features exhibits on the murderous crimes of German police forces during the Nazi era, has begun a temporary display on the thousands of children euthanized during the same period as “life unworthy of life.” The exhibition, entitled “In memory of the children. Pediatricians and crimes against children in the Nazi period,” displays photos and documents related to various Nazi projects concerning the murder and torture of children, such as Action T4 and Lebensborn. While Action T4 focused on exterminating children who were physically or mentally handicapped, Lebensborn...

Greek disabled groups are angry at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. But the Labor Ministry on Monday said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance.

The perils of the social devaluation of people include legal assisted suicide and euthanasia It is not uncommon to hear people without disabilities and people who have recently acquired a disability say they would rather be dead than disabled. Although politically incorrect, embedded perceptions that life with disability is full of suffering and indignity promote the idea that it's a death sentence. Able-ist social conditioning equates disability with pain, frailty, incapacity, and poor quality of life. It views persons with disabilities as problems that need to be fixed. The 'problem' of disability I would argue the "problem" of disability...

October 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A high court judge in Britain has ruled that the family of a brain-damaged woman is not allowed to withhold food and water to cause her death. Justice Baker ruled last week that the 52-year-old patient known publicly only as M should not be allowed to starve to death because her life still contained some positive elements. Her family had argued that M’s daily routine was too limited for her to want to continue living. “She cannot enjoy a drink, a cup of tea or anything. She has got no pleasures in life,” M’s sister...

Our daughter Laci Faith Lowell August 17, 2011 (HLIAmerica.org)- Let me just start off saying that abortion never had a chance with us. We found out in November 2005 that we were going to have a baby. I had just gotten out of the Army, and we had settled in Cibolo, Texas - right near San Antonio.  When we first started trying to have a baby, we were surprised at how long it took.  I have always joked about my little “swimmers,” and how they were probably swimming in circles.  So we prayed, and we told Jesus that if he...

he death of Terri Schindler Schiavo in 2005 is a distant memory for most Americans. But for the family that spent seven years fighting Terri's estranged husband and the court system to stop the starvation of their daughter and sister, recollections of the 13 days Terri lingered without food or water before finally succumbing to death remain vivid and painful. And the knowledge that other brain-damaged patients could suffer a similar fate has propelled this once-ordinary family into around-the-clock activism. "It was almost like there really wasn't an option," said Terri's sister, Suzanne Schindler-Vitadamo, when I interviewed her last weekend...

We dehydrate profound cognitively disabled people to death in the USA–a death that comes slowly over about a two week period, often resultin in tissue cracking and even bleeding. We dress it up in nice clothes by claiming we are merely withdrawing unwanted medical treatment. But when the treatment is basic sustenance, not only are we intentionally causing death, but symbolically, we are saying that the dehydrated person’s life is so unworthy of being lived, we won’t even give them proper food or water. This approach to severe cognitive disability started with people diagnosed as persistently unconscious, known officially by...

Nebraska girl born with no arms and legs has blamed unfair scoring after she failed to make her school's cheerleading squad three years in a row. Julia Sullivan, 16, has complained to the school board after she said she was given 'no accommodation for her disability' during try-outs. The wheelchair user did not make the team after she received a low score in the jumps/kicks category of the trials. Miss Sullivan got her highest marks in the communication skills and enthusiasm/spirit categories. The Aurora High School student, who said that she likes to dance, said: 'I just think it would...

Gary Harvey (WASHINGTON D.C.) - Where does one turn when you become disabled, vulnerable or old and become unlawfully a victim of the system? There are no kind words for the injustice that Chemung County New York has visited upon my husband, Gary Harvey and me. Gary at work. My husband a veteran who served his country and fought for our freedom is being denied his.Until January 2006, my husband was leading a normal life. I am telling this story on behalf of a “Person”. Not a corporation, not a piece of “Human Capital” and definitely not a legal...

A new national survey in England finds disabled Britons are opposed to the national government legalizing the practice of assisted suicide, and one pro-life group is welcoming the results.The survey, commissioned by disability group Scope, found 70% of disabled people are “concerned about pressure being placed on other disabled people to end their lives prematurely” “if there were a change in the law on assisted suicide.” The survey also found that most young adults share the concerns of older generations about the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide.The survey found 77% of disabled people aged 18-24 and 71% of disabled...

Know what doesn't go over well with advertisers? Making fun of disabled children. On April 18, political blog Wonkette published a post titled "Greatest Living American: A Children's Treasury of Trig Crap On His Birthday" (none of which we will quote here). Trig, for those who don't remember, is Sarah Palin's youngest son, who has Down Syndrome. The initial response to this "celebration" of Trig's birthday was limited to comments getting in on the action, contributing the sort of jokes that would make Gilbert Gottfried proud. But then, according to Slate's David Weigel, conservative bloggers stumbled across it and the...

Simon Fitzmaurice with his wife and children DUBLIN, April 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a powerful op-ed in today’s Irish Times, an Irish man with degenerative motor neurone disease (MND) has revealed how he was heavily pressured by the medical community to refuse the ventilator that is keeping him alive. After having been admitted to intensive care for pneumonia, a common complication for paralyzed patients, Simon Fitzmaurice began receiving assisted breathing and a feeding tube. Shortly after being admitted, Fitzmaurice said, a doctor came in and told him it was rare and expensive for patients to have a ventilator at...

Terri Schiavo was subjected to a painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death by her former husband who refused to provide her with proper medical care and rehabilitative treatment.Not wanting to see other patients endure the same ordeal, the foundation Terri’s family started to help disabled people receive proper care announced today it is supporting the New Beginnings Community Center of Medford, New York that will help people in similar situations.The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network told LifeNews that New Beginnings is a state-of-the-art outpatient rehabilitative facility for Veteran’s, Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors and other cognitively and physically disabled persons....

Not only those with a “future-like-ours,” but all human beings possess equal basic rights. In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, the distinguished philosopher Don Marquis offers his evaluation of my book The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice: Kaczor’s book contains the most complete, the most penetrating and the most up-to-date set of critiques of the arguments for abortion choice presently available. It is required reading for anyone seriously interested in the abortion issue. It is a good introduction for anyone who wishes to read a serious and thoughtful account of all of the various...

EXCLUSIVE: Minnesota resident Jim Stene voted last November -- and thought he was casting his ballot for President Gerald Ford. "He was exploited, plain and simple. He was exploited," his father, Alan Stene, charges. "This is a moral and ethical issue." Jim Stene, 35, suffers from anoxic encephalopathy, severe brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. He has lived with the condition since 1987, when, as a 12-year-old boy, he jumped into a river to save the life of his drowning sister, Heather. Stene had spent the last 15 years living in a group home in...

One of the terrible things about euthanasia and food and fluids cases, is the readiness by which many are willing to make despairing totally disabled people dead, that is, people who are fully conscious but completely paralyzed.  Indeed, recently Belgian doctors euthanized such a woman, and then a different set of doctors harvested her organs.  We have also had bioethicists, who once said dehydration should be for people who are unconscious, turn around and say that locked in patients have an even greater claim to withholding food and fluids since they are aware of their helplessness.But this readiness to...

Veterans with disabilities and financial problems are often stuck without proper homes and fight for housing benefits alone. A conglomeration of local organizations and experts hope to turn the page on that trend with a new neighborhood concept designed to aid veterans. Billed the Veterans Village at Cypress Pond Estates in Palmetto -- will be a 78-home subdivision that offers affordable, maintenance-free homes and assistance with financing and accessibility for the disabled.

I'm a Disability-Rights activist and writer who lives in a hospital's long-term care unit. I was born with Arthrogryposis, and I'm at the stage where I live with a chronic pulmonary condition. In July, I will have been in long-term care for ten years, and in this ten year period, alot of people around me have died. With all the people I have gotten to know through the years, and who have died, I think most of them died with dignity.--This includes my sweet wife, who died in 2006 from Cystic Fibrosis. The will of an individual is nobody's...

Zach Neff is all high-fives as he walks through his college campus in western Missouri. The 27-year-old with Down syndrome hugs most everybody, repeatedly. He tells teachers he loves them. "I told Zach we are putting him on a hug diet - one to say hello and one to say goodbye," said Joyce Downing, who helped start a new program at the University of Central Missouri that serves students with disabilities. The hope is that polishing up on social skills, like cutting back on the hugs, living in residence halls and going to classes with non-disabled classmates will help students...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- British television pundit Virginia Ironside is drawing gasps from pro-life advocates from across the globe for advocating killing disabled children. She said any "good mother" would smother a disabled child with a pillow because of the frustration bringing up such a baby would pose. "If I were the mother of a suffering child -- I mean a deeply suffering child -- I would be the first to want to put a pillow over its face," Ironside said in a video clip of a new BBC television interview she gave."If it was a child I really loved,...

MALMO, Sweden, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A Swedish man who is blind and has Down syndrome and some autistic traits was bound by the arms for much of the last 25 years, officials said. The man, who also is unable to speak and was considered to be at risk for self-destruction, resides in an assisted living facility in Malmo, Swedish news agency TT/The Local reported Thursday. "I have never heard of anything like it. Our investigators and inspectors are very experienced, but all have been deeply shocked. This treatment is illegal," said Christer Neleryd of the National Board of Health...

Harrisburg, PA (LifeNews.com) -- In a ruling involving a mentally disabled man whose legal guardians sought the power to end his medical care, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that state law requires life-preserving treatment for people who are not near death and have not refused treatment. The Alliance Defense Fund and allied pro-life attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 53-year-old David Hockenberry, who has had acute mental disabilities since birth, arguing that his legal guardians should not be allowed to deny him life-preserving treatment while he is not terminal or unconscious.Hockenberry’s guardians unsuccessfully attempted to deny him...

University efforts to test Amazon’s electronic readers—Kindles—as substitutes for standard textbooks has run into trouble with the Obama Administration. The idea behind using Kindles is to save money by supplanting bulky paper-based books with lighter and smaller electronic devices. For example, one small hand-held Kindle could hold all the books needed for a four-year degree. Despite the seemingly obvious benefits, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is threatening legal action against any school that might be tempted to try the devices. Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, warns that the devices violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Even...

If Haylee Cain were telling you her life's story, it would begin Thursday. The 21-year-old said she would always remember it as the day she moved out of the nursing home and into the lives of Donna and Judson Emens, of Tuscumbia. "I'm just so excited," she said. "I said I wouldn't cry, but I might." Because she suffers from cerebral palsy and because her grandfather, James Thomas, was no longer able to care for her, Haylee was forced to live in a nursing home. No state agency exists to care for individuals such as Haylee who suffer from physical,...

A mother of two has revealed how she never lost her will to live after an illness left her paralysed and unable to speak for 18 months. Kerry Pink was left suffering from a condition known as ‘locked-in syndrome’ by an undiagnosed neurological illness when she was just 35. Mrs Pink, writing in the Daily Mail, said: “My memories are blurred. But some things remain absolutely certain. I know that however dark the twilight world I inhabited, I never lost my will to live. Determined “I was always determined to come back home. And it was my absolute faith...

It is a decision no parent ever wants to make. But as the Rudd family watched their 43-year-old son lying paralysed and comatose on a life support machine, they came to a terrible conclusion. Recalling a conversation where Richard told them he wouldn't want to be trapped in a useless body, his relatives agreed it was time to let him go. Yet even as the Rudd family mentally prepared to say goodbye, his doctor made a startling discovery. Despite his devastating spinal injuries, Richard Rudd was still able to blink his eyes in response to simple questions.

Cathy Ludlum of Manchester has a neuromuscular condition called spinal muscular atrophy and has been in a wheelchair since she was a child. She and other advocates for people with disablities are fighting against an effort to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. (JOHN WOIKE / HARTFORD COURANT / May 13, 2010) Cathy Ludlum says she has a great life, but since childhood she's been aware not everyone thinks so. She remembers being 5, sitting in her wheelchair as people in the supermarket looked at her and shook their heads. She wondered how she could...

John Huff/Staff photographer Rochester residents Ellen Edgerly, left, and her daughter Sara. ROCHESTER — A few years back, hundreds of bikers gathered in Representatives Hall in Concord to protest a proposed helmet law. Ellen Edgerly, 51, an advocate with the state's Brain Injury Association, was sitting in the middle of the room, a lone voice in a sea of leather and wild beards, when a lawmaker asked if anyone supported the change. "She stood up, passed all of these tough guys, and testified about brain injury and what it means," says Steven Wade, the association's executive director. "It took...

TORONTO, February 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The winning performance of moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau on Sunday sent a ripple of excitement through Canada as the world watched the young Canadian become the first ever to win Olympic gold on home turf.  But for the newly-dubbed "Alexandre the Great," the real celebration was at the bottom of the course - where he embraced brother Frederic, who suffers from cerebral palsy and whom Bilodeau affectionately calls "my inspiration."The elder of the two, Frederic stood up from his wheelchair and cheered, grinning widely in front of cameras, as his brother crossed the...

Three years ago, the medical community was stunned when Rom Houben―diagnosed to have been in a persistent vegetative state since a horrific car crash in 1983―was discovered to be fully conscious and aware. Unable to speak or communicate, he’d lived as a prisoner in his own body for over two decades. Doctors had performed test after test, concluding repeatedly that Houben’s consciousness was “extinct.” It took 23 years for technology to prove that the opposite was true: Houben’s brain was not dead, and his consciousness was not extinct. “I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was...

When assisted suicide is legalised most of the people who will die are disabled. And American disability advocates take a very dim view of it. This is the theme of a hard-hitting series of articles in the latest issue of the Disability and Health Journal. The editor, Suzanne McDermott, of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, writes that she changed her own mind after studying the issue. At first she believed that assisted suicide was solely a personal autonomy issue. But eventually she was persuaded that it is at the heart of the movement for disability rights: "Almost...

In a submission to a consultation on relaxing the rules on assisted suicide - which ends today - a coaliton of five disabled groups, said that “to see suicide as the right solution is to abandon hope. Severely ill and terminally ill people do no deserve society to give up on them.” The group, which is lead by Baroness Campbell, accused others who were pushing for the change as “seeking to change the law by the back door by creating the impression that those who assist in a suicide will be immune from prosecution”. Over the past 10 years 100...

  I awoke this morning in Edinburgh, jet lagged but looking forward to a productive time of debating and discussing assisted suicide.  Stumbling down to breakfast, I was sharply awakened into my usual state of concern for society by a front page headline in the Independent: Do I love my daughter? With all my heart. Will it be a relief when she dies?  Without question: Life and Death Issues with a Disabled Child The article is written by a woman named Tussie Myerson, the mother of eighteen-year-old Emmy, a young woman with severe seizure disorder and profound cognitive disabilities.  Myerson complains bitterly–and righteously–about the lack of services...

Most contested cases of removing babies or profoundly disabled adults from needed life support have involved those with serious brain injuries or cognitive impairments. But once the idea that dead is better than disabled takes hold, it will soon spread to those with physical disabilities.Now, in the UK, parents are fighting over withdrawing life support from a seriously disabled one-year-old child who is cognitively normal. From the story: The mother of a chronically ill baby has defended her court battle with the child’s father to have his life support machine turned off. The boy, known only as RB, has...

A number of my friends have children with disabilities. Their problems range from cerebral palsy to Turner's syndrome to Trisomy 18, which is extremely serious. But I want to focus on one fairly common genetic disability to make my point. I'm referring to Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome.   You may already know that Down is not a disease. It's a genetic disorder with a variety of symptoms. Therapy can ease the burden of those symptoms, but Down syndrome is permanent. There's no cure. People with Down syndrome have mild to moderate developmental delays. They have low to middling...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 24, 2009 ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Today we celebrate the 19th anniversary of the enactment of the historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Signed into law on July 26, 1990, this landmark legislation established a clear mandate against discrimination on the basis of disability so that people with disabilities would have an equal opportunity to...

MANORVILLE, N.Y., May 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, named "Honoree of the Year '09" by the Independent Group Home Living Foundation (IGHL; www.ighl.org), will be coming to the dinner and accepting the award at the IGHL 30th anniversary gala on Sunday, June 7th. This is the Alaska Governor's first appearance on Long Island. Independent Group Home Living (IGHL; www.ighl.org) is a Manorville, New York-based not-for-profit organization providing programs, services and support for people with developmental disabilities in New York State. Palin is devoted to families who have children with special needs. The award will be presented at the...

A tremendously important story has gone virtually untold by the media, ignored by our political leaders and unknown to the American public. Despite the extraordinarily high price they have paid, America's severely wounded veterans are enduring humiliating financial hardships of epic proportions. Home evictions, utility shutoffs, car repossessions and foreclosures are commonplace. Spouses have to give up their jobs to become caregivers, cutting family incomes by up to 50 percent or more. Most disabled vets receive much less in compensation and benefits than they did while on active duty, reducing incomes even further. Many are too dysfunctional to hold a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Park Police say they have arrested 91 protesters in front of the White House, including some in wheelchairs who chained themselves to a fence. The protesters are calling on the president to support legislation that would give people with disabilities in need of long-term care alternatives to nursing homes. Sgt. David Schlosser says a large group gathered on a sidewalk outside the White House on Monday without a protest permit required for groups of more than 25 demonstrators. He says some protesters are in wheelchairs and have chained themselves to a fence. Police may use a...

hen 84% of the American people, according to the AOL Hot Seat weekend poll, think a joke you cracked on late night television was either tone-deaf/insensitive or worse yet flat-out offensive then you might think you have problems. (Heh who are we kidding? You do! You do!) Just because Britain's largest daily newspaper has a top ten gaffe reel assembled and online before your presidency is barely 60 days old, you might believe that you're the laughingstock of serious members of the world community of leaders. (Again, likely, you're right.) And when you take the time to address an Islamic...

Just when everything was going so swimmingly — poll figures, AIG, Democratic unity and all — President Obama enrages veterans: The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases. “It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends...

MONTREAL, March 17, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) - A Quebec couple have launched a $3.5-million lawsuit against Montreal Children's Hospital for allegedly putting their infant daughter back on artificial food and hydration without their approval.Marie-Eve Laurendeau gave birth to Phebe Mantha at LaSalle Hospital in November 2007. After a difficult delivery Phebe was transferred to Montreal Children's Hospital in serious condition and put on life support.According to the lawsuit Laurendeau and Phebe's father, Stephane Mantha, were told by doctors that their daughter had little chance for survival and advised them to take her off respiratory support and hydration, to which they...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Feb. 5, 2009 – The Defense Logistics Agency hired 91 college students with disabilities under the federal government’s Workforce Recruitment Program in 2008, more than any other federal agency. The jointly sponsored Defense and Labor department program matches students with disabilities with internships at government agencies or private-sector companies. Since it started in 1995, about 4,500 students have participated, and more than 350 of them have been interns at DLA, officials said. The Army hired the most WRP interns from 2004 to 2007, Famia Magana, director of DLA’s Equal Employment Office, said. With 86 hires in...

MANORVILLE, N.Y., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been named "Honoree of the Year '09" by the Independent Group Home Living Foundation (IGHL; www.ighl.org), a Manorville, New York-based not-for-profit organization providing programs, services and support for people with developmental disabilities in New York State.