The History of Disability

[LeoCasey at aol.com]

It is possible to construct slippery slope arguments both ways on this issue: 
on the one hand, to euthanasia, as Marta did, and on the other hand, to the 
suppression of a woman's reproductive freedom. That is why I think that some 
nuance and distinctions which recognize that there really are two sides to 
this issues, that we are deal with competing goods [respect for all human 
life, women's reproductive freedom] and competing evils [disrespect for human 
life which does not fit an 'ablist' model of perfection, disrespect for a 
woman's right to chose when and where to carry a fetus to full human life] 
are badly needed. One could write a science fiction dystopia either way on 
this issue.  


> Leo said:
> 
> >But it seems to me that you are also very close to arguing a "right to
> life" 
> >position here. Shouldn't a mother have the ability to choose not to bring a
> 
> >child into the world with cystic fibrosis, for example? All things being 
> >equal, is it not right for a mother to want to spare her children and
> herself 
> >pain? To wish a long, full life without undue physical hardship for them? 
> 
> (Woo, Leo!  Were you smiling evilly while typing this one?)
> 
> I suppose, all other things being equal, you're right.  Buuuuuut . . . all
> things are not equal.  Following that logic, one then can conclude that too
> many "unfit"  (by any criteria) working-class fetuses is a bad drain on the
> capitalists' pocketbooks as well as on that of their mothers' (with
> predictable results).  There never would be "unfit" bourgeois-class fetuses
> since their parents would have enough money to deal with their situation.
> Hmmm. . . I sense a good science-fiction story here.
> 
> Todd <smiling evilly>
> 

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

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