• I have a dream that one day this world
will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: We hold these truths to be
self evident, that all humans and humansto-be are created equal. I have a dream
that the children of this world will one day
live in a world where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin, their
age, their gender, their sexual orientation,
their abilities, their religious beliefs, their
heritage ... but by the content of their
character.
• -- Free after Martin Luther King, Jr.
http://www.amputeecoalition.org/communicator/vol2no3pg4.html
The process termed "osseoperception"
refers to the adjustment of the mind to an
osseointegrated prosthesis. The
implication is that bone-integrated
prosthetic fixtures "communicate" with
the mind, via numerous neural pathways,
to promote near-normal function of the
prosthetic limb and improved
psychological acceptance. Beethoven, who
held a pencil between his teeth and
touched the pencil to the piano keys to
help him "hear" the music, illustrates a
primitive form of this concept. Similarly,
patients can perceive their environment
through their osseointegrated prosthetic
device. A self-reported incident even
describes a patient sensing, through his
artificial leg, what type of subfloor was
beneath a carpet.
I have a dream that one day this
world will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: We
hold these truths to be self
evident, that all humans and
humans-to-be are created equal.
• “How did parents endure the shock [of the birth
of a thalidomide baby]? The few who made it
through without enormous collateral damage to
their lives had to summon up the same enormous
reserves of courage and devotion that are
necessary to all parents of children with special
needs and disabilities; then, perhaps, they needed
still more courage, because of the special,
peculiar horror that the sight of their children
produced in even the most compassionate.
Society does not reward such courage…because
those parents’ experience represents our own
worst nightmare, ever since we first imagined
becoming parents ourselves. The impact upon
the brothers and sisters of the newborn was no
less horrific. This was the defining ordeal of their
family life – leaving aside for now the crushing
burden on their financial resources from now on”.
Stephens T and Brynner R (2001) Dark Remedy; the impact of thalidomide; Perseus
Publishing, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA page 65/66
Self esteem ratings following severe Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
Gerhart KA, Koziol-McLain J, Lowenstein SR, Whiteneck GG. (1994) Quality of Life Following Spinal Cord
Injury; Knowledge and Attitudes of Emergency Care providers, Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 23,
807-812
No disabled Providers
Self-rating
No disabled Providers SCI survivors
Imagining self with SCI Comparison group
% Agreeing with the statement
I feel that I am a person
of worth
98
55
95
I feel that I have a
number of good
qualities
98
81
98
I take a positive attitude
96
57
91
I am satisfied with
myself
on the whole
95
39
72
I am inclined to feel
that I am a failure
5
27
9
I feel that I do not have
much to be proud of
6
33
12
I feel useless at times
50
91
73
At times I feel I am no
good at all
26
83
39
• In recent years the militant disability movement has
•
developed a whole new confident and strident identity no more pathetic cripples pleading in soppy charity ads,
but a strong demand for equal rights in the tradition of
the battles for black, women's and gay rights. After
women's pride, black pride and gay pride,proud-to-bedisabled seems to make sense too. But each of these
four campaigns is different. Each group's identity,
cohesiveness and claim to victimhood is based on
markedly different circumstance. Disability campaigners
have over-identified with other civil rights issues, talking
as if they were a race or a gender.
Polly Toynbee Friday August 24, 2001 The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,36
04,541665,00.html
Majid Ezzati et al Selected major risk factors and
global and regional burden of disease , Lancet. 2002
Nov 2;360(9343):1347-60 Fig.1
Majid Ezzati et al Selected major risk factors and global and regional
burden of disease , Lancet. 2002 Nov 2;360(9343):1347-60 Fig.2
• Dr. Gregor Wolbring
• International Centre for Bioethics, Culture
and Disability
www.bioethicsanddisability.org
• Executive member of the Canadian
Commission for UNESCO
• Biochemist, Faculty of Medicine U of
Calgary research on thalidomide
• Bioethicist positions at U of Calgary and U
of Alberta (Edmonton)
• gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca