Protecting The Disabled Children and Adults

It's surreal knowing the conditions disabled Children and adults live in Eastern Europe. In some places conditions are improving but not fast enough. These aren't third world countries I'm talking about. These are old communities that are full of culture and history. After years of the NAZI regime and Soviet rule, poverty became very common.

The EE institutions are overcrowded because more parents are giving up their disabled children at birth.

Poverty and lack of resources available causes more and more disabled children to be abandoned at birth . The children are hidden away in Groupas, Orphanages and Institutions. Hidden away from society. Unless the children are adopted all of the kids will live and die in the institution.

The neglect and murder of the disabled began during the NAZI occupation. The regime considered the disabled as "useless feeders". If they couldn't work to support the regime they were put to death by lethal injection, starvation, gassing or exhaust fumes.

Approximately 200,000 to 250,000 disabled people were murdered during the Action T4 program. This initial start of Ethnic Cleansing of people the NAZI regime considered "defective" began September 1939. Often false causes of death were given to the family members to hide what actually occured.

I'm glad that period in history  is over and hope the next generations remember what evil can do. It's a shame the treatment of the disabled is still cruel in some places.

The purpose of this particular blog entry is not to slam a country, groupa, institution or region. Because each country's policies and regions treat the disabled differently.

I've seen the documentaries "The Hidden Children Of Ukraine " and the video of a Serbian institution that was shown on the news.

I've read the adoption blogs of children being adopted that had the cardiac issues and the adopting parents think the situation is dire. Quite a few times when the AP get the official referral the parents are finding out the cardiac repair was done long ago. Once the child is home in the United States and seen by the cardiology Drs , the parents  find out the operation was successful. Unfortunately some of the parents are told of the repaired heart defects to later find out the defect is still there.

Each region is different and whatever treatment the disabled child has received can vary from institution to institution. And until you get the official referral for a particular child, the medical information your given  by an outside source is often incomplete or incorrect.

I'm American and I'm saddened to say it's not just Eastern Europe that the Disabled were mistreated . It happened in the United States also. In 1965 Senator Robert Kennedy toured Staten Island's Willowbrook State School, he called it a " snake pit". And stated , " living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than cages we put animals in at the zoo." He made suggestions on how to improve the living conditions for the disabled children. Willowbrook State School had a reputation of being a warehouse for children with intellectual disabilities.

*In early 1972, Geraldo Rivera, then an investigative reporter for WABC-TV in New York, conducted a series of investigations at Willowbrook uncovering a host of deplorable conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of residents by members of the school's staff. A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the child living inside Willowbrook and The publicity generated by the case was a major contributing factor to the passage of a federal law, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980. (paragraph taken directly from Wikipedia)*

Geraldo Rivera's investigative reform and the public's outrage was the beginning of real reform.  The sad reality is places like Willowbrook existed all over the United States but like EE facilities varied from state to state on how the children and adults with Intellectual disabilities were treated. If this particular blog entry seems unbelievable or far fetched, look up Willowbrook and investigate the information yourself.

Because of genetic testing and ultrasounds parents in the United States are less likely to abandon their disabled children now but the abortion rate is staggering.

*A 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United Kingdom and Europe with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated. Data from the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register in the United Kingdom indicates that from 1989 to 2006 the proportion of women choosing to terminate a pregnancy following prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome has remained constant at around 92%.

In the United States a number of studies have examined the abortion rate of fetuses with Down syndrome. Three studies estimated the termination rates at 95%, 98%, and 87% respectively.  * (information source Wikipedia)

Looking at the abortion rates every country has a long way to go.