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eug
inclusion
enics
no doubt fuelled this assault, it was given
social and political justification by a
calculation that set expenditure on such
people against their productivity and
concluded that they were a net loss.
While most disabled people are quite
capable of working and many are eager to
do so, a minority are not. People such as
my profoundly learning-disabled son,
Joey, will never hold down a job or pay
tax, and will require frankly expensive
care throughout his life.
As a parent, I have often been made all
too aware of the costs incurred and am
reliably informed that the first question
asked when local authorities (under
dreadful financial pressures) consider an
application for support is about the costs.
T4 shows in the most vivid way
imaginable that the moment an
individual’s fundamental rights are Poster from London’s Eugenics Society in the 1930s gives an unambiguous message
subjected to a simple financial evaluation
is the moment the gates of hell open wide. have to acknowledge their shortcomings. head and insisting that the best definition
They are certainly forced to face up to the of a human is the product of two human
Courageous opposition consequences of their actions. parents and nothing to do with intellectual
The final lesson that can be drawn from ability, speech or rational powers.
T4, however, is more positive and more Never again As Hamlet put it, we need to learn there
energising, albeit tinged with tragedy and So what do we need to do to ensure that are more things in heaven and earth than
dreadful pain. It can be found in the T4 can never be repeated? How will we are dreamt of in our philosophy, and the
extraordinarily courageous opposition know when its lessons have been learned time has come to rethink some of our most
that took shape and, astonishingly, and we can put it behind us? cherished prejudices.
managed to stop the programme. I suspect three things are needed. The Finally, in more practical if equally
This was partly possible because (unlike first is cultural: above all, the understanding ambitious terms, I think we need to
the Jewish or Romany experience) it that having a disabled family member – develop nothing less than a new social
wasn’t entire families that were destined especially one with learning disabilities – contract to ensure our fellow humans are
for slaughter. The opposition – from a isn’t the worst thing imaginable. not only protected but also given the best
handful of brave, fiercely determined But health professionals still talk about that society can offer them.
relatives with a few influential and largely the “risks” of having a child with Down The extraordinary achievements of
Catholic churchmen – is a remarkable syndrome, and hateful terms like “idiot”, medicine mean that far more disabled
story of courage and principle that is not “imbecile”, “retard” and “moron” remain infants survive, which is welcome. But, if
widely known. in common parlance. people are to have a decent, happy life, we
Today, we still see families heroically Language and representation need to need a new understanding of our shared
battling against many injustices. These change radically if the disabled, especially experiences and responsibilities. Profound
range from the endless, bureaucratic (though not exclusively) those like my son disabilities can be found in any family, class,
tedium of fighting local authorities for who find it very difficult to speak up for educational background and ethnicity, and
basic support to the powerful crusades for themselves, are to be granted the dignity, need to be accepted as fundamental.
justice led by the grieving families of too respect and affection that they so deserve. As Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
many disabled people who have died Then, we need to stop assessing people shrewdly observed: “What we call
entirely preventable deaths, often in the by their productivity and earning abilities, disability is perhaps the essential
hands of badly trained and managed staff. and create a new sense of community and characteristic of being human.”
The fact that mothers such as Sara Ryan, belonging. That will require a reshaping of The challenge is clear, but who is
whose son Connor Sparrowhawk drowned our entire system of values, wherein we prepared to take the lead? n
in a bath in an NHS assessment and stop regarding intellectual achievement as l A longer version of this article appeared
treatment unit in 2013, were vilified and the single most important quality a in Byline Times: https://tinyurl.
blamed by the authorities shows that the human being can have. com/2tsvnpvn
days of gaslighting are hardly behind us. From Plato to this day, philosophers have
What these committed campaigners struggled with the problem of “idiocy”, Stephen Unwin is author of the play All our
also show, however, is just how powerful with a deep anxiety about whether people Children, about the Nazi genocide of
family voices can be, especially when with limited rational capacity, and certainly disabled people, and father of Joey, a
allied with the lived experience of the those lacking speech, can be admitted into young man with severe learning disabilities
learning disabled themselves. the category of human.
When authorities are confronted by the In my experience, however, learning Further reading
passionate rage of real families suffering disabilities has the effect of turning the Shapland S. When mass murder was social
genuine injustice, they do, eventually, assumptions of classical thought on its policy. Community Living. 2020; 33(3):30

www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 35 No 3 | Spring 2022 17