A Civilised Society

It’s said that the true measure of a ‘civilised society’ is its attitude to its most vulnerable members, and specifically those who cannot fully take care of their own needs. This week we continue Fiona Place’s story of her son Fraser who was born with Down syndrome. Her story highlights the contradictions that have developed in the medical world and in society at large concerning certain disabilities: that some babies should have their lives ended before they are born, and that others should have enormous efforts made to save them, in spite of the suffering inflicted on these little ones or their limited chances of surviving without some serious and permanent damage.
 
This story will make you think about the way society places more value on some lives than it does on others, and about the assumption that certain disabilities will result in a person being a life-long ‘burden’ to the family and to society. This is a very big assumption indeed. How do you measure a person’s contribution to family and social life? By the money they are able to earn? By how much work they can get through in a day? By the tender love they inspire in those around them? By the affection and simple joy they exude? By the opportunity they give the rest of us to learn unselfish love? And what of able-bodied, mentally sound people who choose to treat others with contempt and live only to fulfil their selfish desires? Are they not an immense burden to those who have to endure their behaviour?

The irony is that none of us escape the personal experience of ‘disability’ and consequent dependence on another’s care. We are all dependent as infants and again in old age, if we live long enough. Illness and accident can also disable us temporarily. It seems that disability is a part of life and that instead of focussing on its complete elimination, the goal should be to make life with disability as good as we can for everyone.