Equal treatment for people with mental retardation : having and raising children / Martha A. Field, Valerie A. Sanchez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Field, Martha A.

Contributor:

Sanchez, Valerie A., 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Developmentally disabled--Legal status, laws, etc--United States.

Developmentally disabled.

Parents with disabilities--Legal status, laws, etc--United States.

Parents with disabilities.

Parent and child (Law)--United States.

Parent and child (Law).

Involuntary sterilization--Law and legislation--United States.

Involuntary sterilization.

Informed consent (Medical law)--United States.

Informed consent (Medical law).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (454 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Engaging in sex, becoming parents, raising children: these are among the most personal decisions we make, and for people with mental retardation, these decisions are consistently challenged, regulated, and outlawed. This book is a comprehensive study of the American legal doctrines and social policies, past and present, that have governed procreation and parenting by persons with mental retardation. It argues persuasively that people with retardation should have legal authority to make their own decisions. Despite the progress of the normalization movement, which has moved so many people with mental retardation into the mainstream since the 1960s, negative myths about reproduction and child rearing among this population persist. Martha Field and Valerie Sanchez trace these prejudices to the eugenics movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They show how misperceptions have led to inconsistent and discriminatory outcomes when third parties seek to make birth control or parenting decisions for people with mental retardation. They also explore the effect of these decisions on those they purport to protect. Detailed, thorough, and just, their book is a sustained argument for reform of the legal practices and social policies it describes.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction

1 Some Families

2 Public Policy, Past and Present

3 Who Are Called “Retarded”?

Part II: Procreation

4 Procreative Choice—But Whose?

5 Evolution of Policies toward Sterilization

6 Current Policy Issues concerning Sterilization

7 What Should the Standards for Sterilization Be?

8 Sex and Contraception

9 The Limited Impact of Guardianship

10 The Peculiar Problem of Abortion

Part III: A Proposal for Self-Determination

11 Self-Determination Explained and Evaluated

12 Necessary Limitations on Self-Determination

13 The Possibility of Varying the Rule

Part IV: Parenting

14 Some Underlying Rules and Issues

15 Written Law concerning Parenting: Important Issues for Parents with Retardation

16 The Social Welfare System in Practice

17 Reforming the System

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Cases

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 401-424) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780674036840

0674036840

OCLC:

648392713