Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Under the liquid cosh

I heard this article this morning, and thought that if nobody else blogs about it I shall.

"Hundreds of women sedated in care homes may be at risk of having children with birth defects, the BBC learns."

Now the article goes on to relate research which indicates that "10 ex-residents of a children's home run by the Church of England in Gravesend, Kent, have had children with a birth defect."

Now I am not playing the blame game and pointing the finger at the Church of England, because you can bet that what went on there was widespread across the care industry and that would include any number of charities including one I am associated with.

We can rail against the practices of the Judge Rotenburg centre but this is worse when you consider the outcomes, because it is interfering with the reproductive ability of a generation as surely as if they were sterilised and this is not even autism yet.

I am coming to that, because if the major tranquiliser regime that these young girls were under, in order to control behaviour was that dangerous, just consider the chemical cocktails that some autistic children have to endure, multiple psychotropic medications, often off licence, and that is mainstream before we even come to what the biomedical quacks practice.

Isn't it ironic that in order to "cure" or control one generation they will risk the next?

Is this a real danger to future autistic mothers?

You bet I can think of several people in my own acquaintance who have been on long term neuroleptic medication.

But anyway, whether it is autistic young people in care, or NT's this is a major abuse.

6 comments:

Maddy said...

Thank you. If it's not on 'the today programme' [via my ipod] I don't get to hear about these things.

Kent said...

"We can rail against the practices of the Judge Rotenburg centre but this is worse when you consider the outcomes, because it is interfering with the reproductive ability of a generation as surely as if they were sterilised and this is not even autism yet."

I'm not sure I follow your logic. One doesn't have to diminish one brand of outrage to build up outrage for another equally outrageous act.

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Don't misunderstand me, I am not by any means saying that the Judge Rotenburg centre is not an outrage, nor an affront to civil rights, what I am saying is that whilst that is a very obvious example of abuse there are many other forms of institutional abuse that are going under the radar so to speak.

Gonzo said...

Agreed!
In a way the Judge Rotenburg center symbolises mistreatment of people with disabilities, that's why there's such a focus on it.

Aspie Bird said...

Thanks for posting this, it's shocking!

Sadderbutwisergirl said...

I read this post and I was horrified about what was being done to those girls in the 1970s=80s. And as an autistic person, it disturbs me that if I had different parents, I might have suffered a similar fate. This is just one of many reasons why it's so horrifying that the autistic members of generation Y are being drugged out of their minds in this day and age.