As a
disability feminist who is also queer and a wheelchair user, the pro-choice the
‘argument’ in many feminist circles regarding the selective abortion of
disabled foetuses, is NOT, as Veronica- who's article can be found on the ABC's Ramp Up here- so brilliantly outlined, just an
intellectual ‘argument for us as disabled people- it is our very lives, our
very right to exist!
Disability
eugenics also has ramifications for the kinds of support we are provided with
by society if we choose to become parents. If our lives and our children’s lives
continue to be seen as less valuable and a burden then we are going to be
treated as such and any supports we require to enable us to be brilliant
parents are going to be framed as us not being able to do ‘the job’ instead of
adopting a rights based approach. Disability once again is perceived as a
personal tragedy and not a social issue and this for many disability rights
activists, myself included, is at the heart of this and many other disability
right struggles.
It is also
worth noting that a 3rd of our children are removed from our care, if the
mother has a disability, because of the lack of adequate support as well as
social services readiness to ‘intervene’. Interestingly, studies have shown
that if the parent with a disability is a male there is significally less
chance of relationship breakdown and removal, which highlights the influence of
gendered roles which regard to what a ‘mother should be able to do’ to be an
effective parent.
Disability
eugenics is an issue at the intersection of feminist discourses- the right to
body autonomy-and disability discourses regarding the value of a non-normative
body/mind and living as an act of resistance to a social discourse which says
‘’better off dead then disabled’’. The choice to abort is framed as a medical
one when it also has social, political and ethical implications. As a
disability feminist my resistance to selective abortion procedures steams from
its value judgment on our lives, it positions us a flawed and wrong and it
seeks to disempower us further by framing us an unwanted burden, as inhabiting
a life not worth living.
Also
importantly this eugenics discourse impacts on how we feel about our lives,
when we hear the massage from society that we shouldn’t exist at all. What does
this message do for the future generations of people who WILL be born or
acquire disabilities? It impacts on our sense of agency, our connection to
others who are living a similar experience and our capacity to see our
struggles as part of civil rights movement.
