[tri-med] Re: Given recent discussions...

>Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a parent back in the 30's or 40's
whose
>daughter with developmental challenges was sterilized without consent that
>screamed, "you can't do this, you have made a judgement on quality of life
>and you have taken consent where it was not yours to take......do you have
>any idea where this could lead?" I wonder if anyone would have listened?
>Likely not.

Barb,

No likely they wouldn't have listened, because I have a true family odd
twist on
that hypothetical of yours.  My father's brother married a woman who's own
mom
had a doctor sterilized her as a child back then, and she wasn't even
developmentally challenged.  Aunt Edna's mother had this twisted idea that
if
she couldn't have kids, then no man would want to marry her, so she'd never
leave home, and mom wouldn't ever have to be alone.  Obviously didn't work
though, as
my uncle was her 2nd husband (1st had died young).  Mom had failed to factor
in adoption possibility with the first, and my uncle was a bit defective
himself and
probably couldn't have had kids of his own anyway.  (Though my "cousin"
William was always a bit of an odd duck, but growing up in that kind of
family dynamic it's
probably no wonder.) But yeah, if a doctor in California would agree to
sterilize a perfectly "normal" child back then, you just know that he
wouldn't have given a 2nd thought to the morality of sterilizing a
"defective" one, with or without consent.

Fawna




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