Advocating for Special Needs Children
I wasn't going to opine about Governor Sarah Palin's speech, but I think one comment deserves highlighting: Having given birth to Trig, who has Down syndrome, Palin said:
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge. And children with special needs inspire a special love.This is a profoundly important human exceptionalism issue that I think all political persuasions can get behind, and indeed, it is one that Senator Obama would be wise to embrace in his own campaign.
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.
The need for vocal support for the worth of such children--and explicit and implicit validation of the choice to allow them to be born--from the highest levels of society could not be more important. As we have noted before here at SHS, in support of S-1810, a very worthy bill co-sponsored by Senators Ted Kennedy and Sam Brownback--stranger political bedfellows there never were--to ensure that prospective parents of such children receive accurate information about special needs children:
Eugenic abortion is a growing problem in my view, with about 90 percent of gestating infants with Down syndrome, dwarfism, or spina bifida aborted rather than carried to term. The rush to withhold or withdraw medical treatment for newborns with serious disabilities is also a rising risk. The bill will not prohibit eugenic abortion or withdrawing treatment, but if passed it will require that parents receive full and accurate information--not just the negative--about raising children with such conditions in the belief that fewer parents who are fully informed will opt for abortion or withdrawing treatment.If Ted Kennedy and Sam Brownback can join together in this worthy effort, so too can Barack Obama/Joe Biden and John McCain/Sarah Palin. In that event, whoever loses the election, special needs kids will win.
Labels: Human Exceptionalism. Special Needs Children. 2008 Election. S. 1810
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:56 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
I believe that we're agreed that every treatment decision made by a patient should be an informed decision. I have some difficulty, however, with legally mandated discussions (or other modes of providing information):
--Once we make discussion of one topic mandatory, and specify what the content of these discussions must be, where does it stop?
--If we legally mandate discussion of some topics, can we legally prohibit discussion of others?
--In how much detail do we mandate the content of the discussion or other disclosure? Do we provide a checklist of topics to be covered? A government-issue leaflet?
--How do we police the process? Do we require the physicians to get signoff from the patients on the fact that the required information has been provided? Do government inspectors audit the physician's files to make sure that this has been done?
Looking at the larger issue, I wonder whether the desire to mandate this sort of disclosure is indicative of a pervasive distrust of physicians, who, after all, have a general duty to ensure that patients have sufficient appropriate facts to allow them to make informed treatment decisions.
Personally I just prefer the approach David Reardon suggested for abortion informed consent-- give the patient a right to sue for lack of informed consent if he or she later learns that critical information was withheld.
And since in the case of abortion the lack of critical information leads to the death of the child, the lawsuit should be for wrongful death.
After getting the snot sued out of them a couple of times, the doctors might lose their infatuation with trying to bully patients into abortions.
The trouble with your solution, Grannygrump, is that it takes great effort and money to initiate a lawsuit. I'd rather people be guranteed that they will receive the information needed so that they can make a truly informed decision.
Palin is not an advocate for children with special needs or disability rights. The same can be said for the Republican Party in general. Palin may think she is a friend to other parents of so called special needs children but she has much to learn. Those with Down Syndrome are needlessly stigmatized and too often forced into institutions as adults. If Palin goes against the grain, supports the Community Choice Act and defies the Republican penchant for ignoring the plight of those Americans that are disenfranchised I will be impressed. I simply cannot envision this happening.
How can you say that Palin is not an advocate for children with special needs??? And what do you mean by "so called special needs children"? How disrespectful can you be? ANY child that has needs outside the mainstream is considered to be a child with special needs! And if you are a parent of a child with special needs, that AUTOMATICALLY makes you an advocate! At least for your own child, and then by association, all special children that need to be advocated for.
As far as your comment about the Republican party in general not being advocates for kids with special needs, I think you have your facts mixed up. The Republican party is not the party which promotes legalized and taxpayer-funded abortion, even up until the time of viability outside of the womb. 90% of children diagnosed before birth as having Down syndrome are aborted. Thanks in large part to the DEMOCRAT party, this will continue and possibly only get higher with newer, less invasive testing procedures. Don't think you can just post these accusations without facts to back up your statements. The announcement that McCain, a REPUBLICAN, chose Governor Palin, a REPUBLICAN and a mother who knew BEFORE her son was born that he has Down syndrome, as his running mate has been the most significant thing to happen regarding giving those a voice in Washington who have never had one.
Adults with Down syndrome are increasingly becoming involved in their communities, as productive members. I ran the office for our local Down syndrome parent support group for two years so I know of what I speak. I have never heard of any adults being forced into an institution; however, up until the 1960's & 70's, many doctors routinely told new parents to put their babies into institutions. Parents were not informed of their beloved children's potential to learn and to live long, healthy lives as contributing members of society.
I HAVE HOPE that if McCain and Palin win this election, that Governor Palin will stand by her word to be that advocate that our kids so desperately need. She did what she promised as a Mayor and as a Governor. Why would you assume she would not stand by her promise as a Vice President? I am a mother of not one, but two beautiful little boys with Down syndrome. My sons' futures are a little brighter now that Palin is on the national scene. Even is they lose the election, we have not seen or heard the last of her.
Go sell your kool-aid someplace else.
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