I was very lucky to be born disabled in 1966, just as the disability rights movement was gaining strength worldwide – I was born into an era of disability activists agitating for recognition that we are human beings like any other, and that we should be treated with respect and dignity. This is a political… Read More from Deepening disability justice: beyond the level playing-field
Topic: Bioethics
I came to bioethics from disability research, and have most to say about prenatal testing and assisted dying. Reading philosophers on ethics and on political theory is a constant wrestling match of ideas and lived experience.
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On Gregor Mendel
On the discovery of the nature of inheritance When an obscure Augustinian monk read his paper on Experiments in Plant Hybridization at the Brno Natural History Society in 1865, nobody noticed. The paper only received three citations over the following 35 years. But that monk, Gregor Mendel, had made a crucial breakthrough, the result of… Read More from On Gregor Mendel
Canaries in the coal mine
Later this year, the Department of Health will announce that a new screening technology, Non Invasive Prenatal Testing, or NIPT, will be offered as an additional test for Down syndrome and other conditions. NIPT is a simple blood test which works by detecting fragments of DNA from the placenta which are circulating in the mother’s… Read More from Canaries in the coal mine