I did not see the episode, but the storyline seems parallel to the way
society generally regards people with disabilities.  I think we're making
progress though.

The misconception that nondisabled people have the authority to establish our
level of value seems to be representative of the human tendency to judge
anything about another person or groups of people based upon individual
perception, even in the face of conflicting, factual information.

In high school I was voted most likely to compose run-on sentences, but I'll
continue.

This problem is more glaringly obvious in the disability community because of
the overall negative affect it has had on us due to society's lack of
recognition of disabled people as equals.  Our situation is kind of a subset
representation of a disastrous result of "group think."

Society falls prey to group think all the time and for a variety of
scenarios, but the results aren't always negative.  Sometimes they are
benign, or by accident (such as when a monkey stumbles onto the right
sequence of keys and types a word on a typewriter -- sorry -- I'm not feeling
generous today) they can actually serve a positive role.  In our case
however, it doesn't work out that way.

The question becomes: How do we get society to realize that it's arrogant as
hell to assume it can assess our quality of life.  That's why I call it -- as
you have heard me say -- Able Body Supremacy.  I don't mean it in an ugly
way, but when nondisabled people believe that it's acceptable to decide
whether our lives have value, I don't know what else I can call it.  I gave
it this name specifically to draw attention to the pervasive, disastrous, and
ongoing root cause of all our problems with society.

The root cause must be addressed.  We keep putting band aids on the
individual problems, but the root cause -- the misconception that we are less
-- continues.  All the laws passed for our benefit will not make any
difference if the masses don't think we have value.  It's popular opinion
that counts.

The medical community will play follow the leader.  The leader at this point
in history is still the ill-conceived but well entrenched group think notion
that we are less.  That's our target for change -- Group Think.  Convince the
masses.

The masses will always dictate the terms, by action or lack thereof.

Betty

In a message dated 04/07/2000 11:27:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Just wondering if anyone else saw last night's episode of ER regarding the
 treatment of the young lady who had multiple disabilities including mental
 retardation.  While I recognise that ER is not entirely based in fact I do
 believe that this situation echos the feelings of the majority of the medical
 establishment.  The woman presented with a non-life threating infection
 requiring a central line and antibiotics.  Most of the doctors and her
 "guardian" write her off saying that she is better off dead anyway.  I ask
 who are we to place a value or devalue on human life regardless of how severe
 one's disability is?  As a person with moderately severe CP I am sometimes
 viewed as retarded yet I graduted cum laude from college.  Often doctors
 disregard my needs, wants, and desires.  One of the ways that I combat this
 is by finding doctors who are truly sensative to my needs.  This is not
 always possible as emergencies do arise.  I am just interested in hearing
 others thoughts regarding this issue.
  >>