I OUTLOOK I
Handicapism.
It's Thinking
That People
With Disabilities
Are Different.
People with disa-
bilities are really like
the rest of us—diverse,
complex, each with
different strengths
and weaknesses,
likes and dislikes.
Sometimes they
may need more help
than you do. But they
always need a smile,
a hello, respect and
dignity. Just like you.
Treat every person
you meet like a
person. It's as simple
as that.
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58
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1990
464 S. Woodward • Birmingham • 844-8400
Euthanasia Bill
Continued from preceding page
guard against hospital ne-
glect of handicapped chil-
dren.
The committee was cre-
ated in the aftermath of the
1982 "Baby Doe" case, in
which a child from Bloom-
ington, Ind., was -refused
medical treatment because
he had Down's syndrome.
Each year, 30,000 infants
with severe disabilities are
born, some 5,000 of whom
are denied medical treat-
ment, according to an
American Civil Liberties
Union report. Many such
cases of neglect have oc-
curred in Detroit, Mr. Seigel
said.
These handicapped chil-
dren, and other individuals
with disabilities, could con-
tinue to face neglect unless
the Michigan bill is amend-
ed, Mr. Seigel said.
Among the arguments the
Mlle cites in its opposition
to H.B. 4016 is a report by
Dr. Leo Alexander, stating
that the Nazi murder of the
handicapped led to the
genocide of other peoples
considered inferior.
Dr. Alexander, who served
with the Office of the Chief
of Counsel for War Crimes in
Nuremberg, said that
275,000 handicapped chil-
dren were killed by Nazi
physicians who believed that
some lives are not worth liv-
ing, and that it was too ex-
pensive to care for certain
disabled individuals.
Before his death in 1984,
Dr. Alexander warned that
the United States, too, could
turn into a society that
does away with its "unde-
sirables." He said: "It
is much like Germany in the
'20s and '30s. The barriers
against killing are coming
down."
"We're not against an in-
dividual patient saying he
wants to die," Mr. Seigel
said of the amendments to
H.B. 4106. "What we're
opposed to is exactly what
happened in the Cruzan case
— third-party euthanasia."
Nancy Cruzan of Missouri
has been comatose since a
car accident seven years ago.
The U.S. Supreme Court re-
cently upheld a Missouri
state ruling that refused Ms.
Cruzan's parents' request to
withhold feeding from their
daughter.
"The scariest thing about
euthanasia is that no one
talks about the sanctity of
life, just the quality of life —
as though life falls into
categories of A, B, C, D and
E. It's like apartheid, with
separate laws for individuals
considered 'defective.'
"Imagine if the kinds of
things said about han-
dicappers — that they would
be 'better off dead' or 'it's too
expensive to keep them
alive' — was said about any
other minority.
"When you look at the his-
tory of prejudice, every
group persecuted —whether
because of race, gender or re-
ligion — has been labeled of
`inferior quality' or 'defective'
or 'handicapped, " Mr. Seigel
said. -
"We also object to the fact
that some physicians would
be forced to do what they
consider a crime (denying
food to a patient)," he
said. "Making doctors do
that falls under the same
logic of somebody in the
courts deciding that
genocide would be a good
idea and forcing people to
comply. There are some very
frightening implications." ❑
'1 NEWS
Post Office Suit
Is Won By
Chasidic Jew
Washington (JTA) — The
Equal Employment Oppor-
tunity Commission has rul-
ed that the U.S. Postal Ser-
vice unfairly treated a
Chasidic Jew by refusing
him overtime opportunities
because he did not want to
work on the Sabbath or Jew-
ish holidays.
The Postal Service, in
refusing overtime to Jenoe
Rottenberg of Brooklyn's
Williamsburg neighborhood,
argued that its collective
bargaining agreement re-
quired those seeking such
work to be available
whenever called.
But the EEOC rejected the
service's claim that the
agreement overrode lang-
uage in the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Act of
1972 requiring an employer
to provide "reasonable ac-
commodation" to religious
observances or practices
"unless an undue hardship
would result."
Dennis Rapps, executive
director of COLPA, the Na-
tional Jewish Commission
on Law and Public Affairs,
which handled the case, said
that five other Jews in the
Postal Service contacted
COLPA to complain about
the overtime regulations.
While those five will
benefit in the future, they
will not be able to acquire
more than one month's over-
time back pay because they
never formally complained
about the practice.