Hello, Gail and others.
I have two adult sons, one born at the tail end of a rubella outbreak before vaccination was available. He has a number of conditions related to first trimester rubella exposure. His disabilities have not been personally tragic because he is as and who he is from birth. The tragedy has been in some people's attitude to him and I suspect that looms larger in my mind that in his. He gets on with life in a manner which others would do well to observe!
My other son sustained a severe brain injury at age 21. He had been a farmer and a very physically active person with a wide network of social contacts. Ten years down the track, I regard, as he still does, his disability as having some tragic consequences. These too are largely the result of other people's attitudes to TBI in general and to his injury in particular.
The social model does not always allow for the "voices" of people who can neither describe their inner world, nor the impact of sudden impairment on their lives.
As for naming disability as personal tragedy, one has only to look at the news from places like the Middle East, Iraq, South Africa, wherever, to see the reality for thousands upon thousands of people. These people have little chance of any power and absolutely no way of intellectualising their reality. Their disabilities most surely are ytragic.
Jude K.
>
> From: Gail Eva <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2003/06/18 Wed AM 09:42:33 GMT+12:00
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: personal tragedy on large
>
> Sarah,
>
> What I was responding to was the tone - and content - of Wolfgang
> Mizelli's post, where he comes close to insinuating that doctors are
> evil. I'm sure if challenged, he would point out that he was referring
> to Nazi doctors, not doctors-in-general, but I think that the kind of
> indirect association he makes links something called the "medical model"
> with something that comes close to being evil. I don't think that this
> kind of view should be allowed to sneak by unchallenged.
>
> My mention of palliative care patients was to try to provoke a response
> to the question of whether "disability as tragedy" is ever legitimate.
> No-one has picked up that particular gauntlet.
>
> Best wishes,
> Gail
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sarah Supple [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 17 June 2003 09:53
> To: Gail Eva; DISABILITY-RESEARCH
> Subject: Re: personal tragedy on large
>
>
> Dear Gail, surely this is wy we differentiate between impairment and
> disability. There will be an embodied reality to impairment, that may
> well
> be negative, but disability comes from the society, and isn't this what
> we
> seek to change? I don't think it would be sensible to lobby to get rid
> of
> the medical institutions but to make sure they don't dictate how
> disabled
> people should live or be perceived. Regards, Sarah.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gail Eva" <[log in to unmask]>
> To:
> Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 6:42 PM
> Subject: Re: personal tragedy on large
>
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