Monthly Archives: June 2011
Added support for compensation and public acknowledgment for eugenics victims in North Carolina
h/t Doug Wahlsten.
North Carolina state flag
The state of North Carolina has recently been revisiting its extensive eugenic past, and the latest move is a statement of support for compensation for sterilization victims from the director of Legal and Regulatory Studies at the John Locke Foundation. Eugenic sterilization legislation was in place in NC until 1979; there are slightly fewer than 3000 living survivors of the regime of sterilization that was in place in NC until that time.
The full story is in the Lincoln Tribune.
International Council on Archives: Section on University and Research Institution Archives Conference
The International Council on Archives: Section on University and Research Institution Archives Conference taking place at the University of Alberta, July 12-16.
Attending this conference may be of interest to many of you who are interested in a synergistic relationship between archives, libraries and the research community.
Registration and program information is available below. Continue reading
Scope Discrimination Survey 15 May 2011
Deteriorating attitudes towards disabled people
New poll commissioned by Scope shows the alarming levels of discrimination disabled people face in daily life
• More than half of disabled people say they have experienced hostility, aggression or violence from a stranger because of their condition or impairment (56%)
• Half of disabled people say they experience discrimination on either a daily or weekly basis
• More than a third (37%) said people’s attitudes towards them have got worse over the past year.
• 58% of people thought others did not believe that they were disabled and 50% of people said they felt others presumed they did not work.
Dominic Lawson: Why the disabled fear assisted suicide
Last night, courtesy of the BBC, we could watch a man being killed – voluntarily. The much-heralded climax of the documentary Choosing to Die was of 71-year-old Peter Smedley being administered a lethal dose of Nembutal helped down with a praline chocolate (this was in Switzerland, after all). In his comments to accompany Smedley’s death, the presenter, Sir Terry Pratchett, declared: “This has been a happy event.”
World report on disability 2011
The first ever World report on disability. Produced by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. There were more than 370 editors, contributors, regional consultation participants, and peer reviewers, from 74 countries around the world.
Foreward by Stephen Hawking – 349 page pdf (not accessible)
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf
60 Minutes NZ: Down syndrome eugenics?
A segment to me aired on 12 June 2011 on TV3′s 60 Minutes explores whether new prenatal testing programs in New Zealand to detect Down syndrome during pregnancy is a form or eugenics.
