Disability Rights

Disability rights advocates have been among the earliest and most vocal critics of emerging human genetic and assisted reproductive technologies. They are acutely aware that technologies enabling the selection of “good” genes and “normal” traits can devalue the bodies and ultimately the lives of people with disabilities. These concerns are grounded in histories of discrimination and abuse, notably the twentieth-century state-sponsored sterilization projects in dozens of U.S. states, and the Nazi campaigns to exterminate hundreds of thousands of disabled people in German medical facilities and concentration camps. Today, disability rights advocates ask whether innovations such as embryo screening and gene editing for reproduction are likely to create a future that respects or devalues difference and disability as a part of the human condition.


Biopolitical Times
Disability rights advocates have been among the earliest and most vocal critics of human germline editing. Many thinkers and writers in this area highlight how a technology that enables the selection of “good” genes and “normal” traits can devalue the lives of people with disabilities.

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Rosemarie Garland-Thomson discusses disability as an identity and the conflicts raised by genetic testing and counseling on Laura Hercher’s podcast, The Beagle Has Landed.

Chapters:

3:00 “I didn’t understand myself as a disabled person because there was no identity...

Biopolitical Times

This article was cross-posted on Disability Remix, the blog of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San...

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From next-generation prenatal tests, to virtual children, to the...

In reference to Douglas Adam's sci-fi novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," an ambiguous device reads "Don't Panic" in bold, red letters. On the side, the text reads "Earth Mostly Harmless."

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Microscopic image of an egg injected with sperm via in vitro fertilization method.

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A surgeon's hands hold sterilized tools under a light.

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A surgeon holding instruments is surrounded by a team. A light beams on patient undergoing surgery.

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In a darkened room, several candles are lit on top of a birthday cake.

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