Forced Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia: The WWDA submission

In November, I posted on the Australian Senate Inquiry into the forced sterilization of women and girls with disabilities.  Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) has just made its powerful, eye-opening submission to the Inquiry.  And there’s something you can do, pronto, that may make a difference here: endorse or support the submission.  Anyone who thinks that forced sterilization is a “thing of the past” shoudl read this submission.  First, from the submission (p.20),

There is a historical precedent in several countries including for example the USA (until the 1950s), in Canada and Sweden (until the 1970s), and Japan (until 1996) indicating that torture of women and girls with disabilities by sterilisation occurred on a collective scale – that is, mass forced sterilisation. This policy was rationalised by a pseudo-scientific theory called eugenics – the aim being the eradication of a wide range of social problems by preventing those with ‘physical, mental or social problems’ from reproducing.  Although eugenic policies have now been erased from legal statutes in most countries, vestiges still remain within some areas of the legal and medical establishments and within the attitudes of some sectors of the community:

• “Disabled people should not have babies.”

Contemporary practices of sterilization in Australia

As a follow up to the post in the first link below, here is a list of further related links on those wanting to know more.  Thanks to a helpful anonymous reader of the What Sorts blog who provided most of the links below but who doesn’t wish to be identified.  Folks in Oz: let us know if you have more information, are undertaking action, whatever.

• http://whatsortsofpeople.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/forced-sterilization-and-disability-in-australia/  Recent What sorts blog post on forced sterilization in Australia TODAY:

• 1997 & 2001: reports from the Human Rights Commission in Australia that discuss the practice.
• 1998– official document assessing situation, number of sterilizations per year, convenience of sterilizing disabled woman http://www.familycourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/resources/file/ebb8810487b4021/MURRAY.pdf
• 2001- Study and report from Women With Disabilities Australia.  Thorough, including much relevant history, sterilization survivor testimony and narratives, as well as a talk given by Adrienne Asch, and references to the significance of the Canadian eugenic history here, and reports “The Sterilization of Leilani Muir” as one of two video source. http://www.ag.gov.au/Documents/HRPB%20-%20NHRAP%20-%20Baseline%20Study%20-%20Submission%20-%20Women%20with%20Disabilities%20Australia%20-%20Attachment%205.PDF
• Leilani Muir on The Current, with Anna Maria Tremonti

Parent Bullies: Homophobic Parents Protest Making Schools Safe for ‘Gay’ Kids

The Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District 11, located just north of Minneapolis, changed its policy of neutrality regarding questions of sexual orientation in favour of active affirmation of the dignity of all students regardless of their race, disability, or sexual orientation.  The New York Times reports:

 In response to conflicting pressures, Anoka-Hennepin officials had devised an unusual policy, directing teachers to remain neutral on any questions involving sexual orientation. But some teachers said that this hampered their ability to support gay students and that the overall climate was still hostile.  Last month, the district rescinded the neutrality policy in favor of a requirement to “affirm the dignity and self-worth of students” regardless of race, sexual orientation, disabilities or other factors. In addition, according to the new agreement, the district will strengthen measures to prevent, detect and punish bullying based on gender or sexual orientation, hire a full-time “harassment-prevention” official, bolster mental health counseling and identify harassment “hot spots” on the campuses of middle and high schools.

However, the Anoka-Hennepin Parents Action League (see their website here) complained that  “[m]aking schools safe for ‘gay’ kids means indoctrinating impressionable, young minds with homosexual propaganda” (see The New York Times).  The Parents Action League website states that

Teaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations.

Two things are quite striking here and both are examples of narrow-minded groups making students worse off by making themselves vocal.  First, and most obviously, the reported statement that “[m]aking schools safe for ‘gay’ kids means indoctrinating impressionable, young minds with homosexual propaganda” is outrageous in itself especially since it implies that what I take to mean the majority (that is, the heterosexual kids) are better served if ‘gay’ kids are not protected from bullying.  I am not sure whether the parents who agreed on such a formulation in their e-mail were appealing to some seriously misguided utilitarian calculation or whether they were just expressing their support for bullying based on sexual orientation?  Either way, the statement represents an unusually ugly thought!

Second, the statement on the Parents Action League website is a further testament to the dangers of giving narrow minded and aggressively fearful groups power over the education of future generations.  Statements like: “[t]eaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations” is reminiscent of burning the “Satanic” Harry Potter Books (see the 2001 BBC News Story).  All such practices will do (practices of withdrawing educational content from the curriculum and relegating it to the home), and I imagine that this is the hope of the Parents Action League, is to perpetuate discrimination based on sexual orientation precisely because homophobic parents seem to want to shield their children from any statements that confer dignity and self-worth upon homosexual students.

Parents should certainly play a greater supportive role in their children’s education.  Having had teaching experience at the secondary education level, I have seen my share of too much resentment toward teachers for the low achievement of their child and too little active participation in the child’s education.  Of course, this is not descriptive of all, or even most, parents.  However, participation in a child’s education should not come in the form of lobbying to truncate the educational experience of students.  If schools are to teach only the core subjects (math, social, science, and english), and remain silent (since being neutral in this context just means staying silent) on all other issues, then the quality of citizens leaving the school system will be poor indeed.

Fortunately, the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District 11 went ahead with its new policy.  Perhaps once they eradicate bullying based on sexual orientation in their hallways, they will start to fight the source of bullying, namely the opinions and beliefs of homophobic parents!

Abuse Claimed by Ex-Students of The W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind

In yet another example of alleged abuse of vulnerable populations in residential schools, this Chronicle-Journal article describes a class-action law suit filed against the Ontario government on the grounds of negligence and breaches of fiduciary duties by the school staff.

Robert Seed, 64, is the representative plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, which claims the staff at the W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind, in Brantford, Ont., bullied, humiliated and abused — mentally and physically — the plaintiffs in the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit is still in its early stages. The claim was filed at Superior Court in Toronto last month.

The Importance of Being Innocent: Why We Worry About Children

 

The Importance of Being Innocenct: Why We Worry About Children

Joanne Faulkner’s recently published book on childhood, The Importance of Being Innocent, was the topic of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation talk show segment today. You can here the interview here; here is the url directly:

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2011/02/lms_20110224_0919.mp3

A chunk of the book can be read at the Cambridge UP website:

http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521146975

Dr. Faulkner is a member of the Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada team.  She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at the University of New South Wales, and formerly held a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta.

 

Mourning Dove at the Catalyst

MOURNING DOVE

Catalyst Theatre is pleased to be the venue for Kill Your Television’s presentation of Mourning Dove

by Emil Sher, running from May 13 to the 22.

Could there ever be a justification for taking a child’s life?  Edmonton’s critically acclaimed, multi-Sterling Award winning independent theatre collective, Kill Your Television will present the Western Canadian premiere of Mourning Dove by Emil Sher. Based on an award-winning radio play and inspired by ‘the Robert Latimer case’ – a true Canadian story – Mourning Dove explores the unspeakable dilemma faced by Doug and Sandra Ramsay, parents of a severely disabled girl who lives a life of pain and agony. Doug is not convinced her next operation, described as a “salvage procedure”, will make a difference, but Sandra, believes it’s their only choice. When Doug takes matters – and his daughters life – into his own hands, worlds are shattered and no one is prepared for the fallout. Mourning Dove asks difficult questions about mercy killing, familial loyalty and personal ethics versus public morality. Controversial and challenging, Mourning Dove is presented by Kill Your Television. Winner of the Sterling Award for Outstanding Independent Theatre 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006.

Featuring: Michael Peng, Nadien Chu, Nathan Cuckow, and Naomi Gaertner

Production Designer: Kerem Cetinel

Stage manager: Jenn Best

Director: Kevin Sutley

Tues-Saturday, 8pm  Sunday matinee at 2pm

Tickets $25, Student/Senior $17

2 Tickets for $20 (Tuesday May 18th)

Tickets available at Tix on the Square (780-420-1750)

Human Trafficking

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US today, and a video from World Vision’s STIR in Australia to reminds us that the problem is real, and growing.

A lot more detail, extra vids, etc., at Like a Whisper.

Tracking Chromosomes, Castrating Dwarves

This is the title of a new paper by distinguished historian of eugenics, Paul Lombardo, available for download via SSRN here that recently appeared in the journal Ethics and Medicine. The paper focuses on Charles Davenport, who became the Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1910 and immediate set up the Eugenics Records Office there later that year. It was to become a major institutional force in the development of North American eugenics. While the paper concerns a small episode in the history of eugenics from 1929, what it says about consent, medical intervention, and disability will ring bells for regular readers of this blog. The abstract of the paper reads:

Kaylee Wallace: Disturbing Coverage and Unasked Questions

Many of you in Canada at least, like many of us in Canada, will have been following the deeply disturbing story of “Baby Kaylee”, which has been the lead story on CBC’s The National for the past three nights. The ever-perceptive folks at Not Dead Yet have posted the following probing blog on the story, and the story of the story, which should be of interest for those who know and don’t know about either. Below is a taster of the post, which you can get in full from the Not Dead Yet blog itself.

There are so many disturbing and tragic aspects of this case itself (though not quite those that the CBC and other major outlets for news have highlighted), and in how it has been picked up and covered, that it might be hard to know where to start. Well, by reading on, for a start:

Once in awhile, a story hits the news that is so heartwrenching and tragic that it seems rude and cold to ask questions – let alone challenge – elements of the story. Often, this is exactly the time that hard questions should be asked.

Right now, there is a life-and-death drama playing out at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto. Kaylee Wallace, who is two months old, is receiving palliative care at the facility. On Tuesday, there was an attempt to harvest her organs under the “Donation after Cardiac Death” (DCD) or “Non-Heart Beating Donation” (NHBD) protocol. In this protocol, an individual’s organs are harvested soon after the heart has stopped beating. The organ harvesting is called off if too much time elapses between removal of a ventilator and stoppage of the heart.

On Tuesday, Kaylee continued to breathe after being taken off a ventilator. The problem was that she stayed awake – since her breathing only stops when she sleeps. (If you think you know a name for that condition, read on)

Many

Think Differently About Autism

From the National Autistic Society, in the UK, a short video on bullying, Asperger Syndrome, and what it’s like; h/t to Asperger Square 8. The video forms part of the NAS’s I Exist and Think Differently about Autism campaigns, which have been ongoing for the past year or so.

Description of video, partial transcript, and further information and links beneath the fold.

Aktion T4 installation and film project

Some of you may know this already, so apologies for cross-posting. Liz Crow, a British filmmaker, has been engaged in putting together a commemorative and interactive installation chronicling Aktion Tiergartenstrasse 4, an extermination plan enacted in 1939 by the Nazi’s with the goal of eliminating people with disabilities from a society that sought Aryan perfection. Aktion T4 became the ‘successful’ blueprint for extermination camps with a broader mandate as the war progressed. In this clip–which is captioned in English, with spoken English as well–Liz Crow outlines the project and the film she’s working on.

You can also see more at the Roaring Girl Productions website, including a 3-D tour of what the installation will look like.

Saving the World with Viral Eugenics

Randall Gordon, a character from Paul Chadwick's Concrete series, points his finger at YOU, a la Uncle Sam, with the following speech bubble: "I'm completely serious, and I repeat my appeal. You, out there. Somewhere. Sexually transmitted; no undue harm; infertility. Go save the world."

And so a tale already fraught with controversy unleashes an ethical bombshell…

Kuru, pedophilia, and white-washing science

Evolving Thoughts has an interesting recent post on recently deceased Nobel laureate Carleton Gadjusek, who not only discovered significant things about the transmissability of kuru, aka Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, but was also a convicted (and seemingly unabashed) pedophile. The hairy gorilla of a blogger at Evolving Thoughts (aka John S. Wilkins), prompted by an obituary of Gadjusek that, understandably, doesn’t make Gadjusek’s pedophilia its focus, offers us the following:

Gadjusek was a moral deviant who harmed children (almost necessarily if he had sex with boys). He also discovered a transmissible dementia that has ultimately changed our way of thinking about neurological diseases and the very nature of disease itself. Like the founder of vascular surgery, Alexis Carrel, who worked with the Nazis in eugenic extermination, his work was good even if he was not.