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Valuing Differences

By etavares On 30 November, 2010 Open Space | 2010 Comments Off on Valuing Differences No tags

In nature, ill, incapacitated or vulnerable animals are, generally speaking, abandoned or the first victims of predators. Thus, we may admit that rejecting a different offspring, or with differences, particularly with a disability, may be a normal attitude.

Despite the huge progress made so far, particularly of a cultural nature, well expressed by the recognition of rights, such as right to life, to education, to leisure, to sexuality, to parenthood, to professional training and employment, and of the right to the family placement of people with a mental disability, among others, there is still no satisfactory answer to the more important issues of an ethical and legal nature provoked by this disorder. For us, the big ethical dilemma with regard to society’s attitude towards people with mental illness is to decide between the primacy of the concept of life quality and the primacy of the concept of life from an ontological perspective, that it, independently of its qualities and attributes or, even better, their appearances (disability, thus, corresponds to a mere appearance or quality). For us, the value of life undoubtedly superimposes the value of the person’s quality of life.

The first movements that fought for the integration of people with disability, namely children, in the several layers of society emerged in the second half of the 20th century, in the aftermath of World War II. The integration of people with mental disability or bearers of some sort of stigma, whether of a racial, cultural, religious, physical or any other nature became, from then on, an ethical imperative for many groups of professionals, such as doctors, who, as a result of their oath, should be informed by the humanistic ideal. In its broader sense, integration presupposes adopting a normal lifestyle, without resorting to special institutions that are susceptible of inevitably promoting segregation, which is the case, in a paradigmatic manner, are the special education schools or institutions for the handicapped.

In our view, to fundament the integrationist ideal, one should not advance arguments like educational advantages, learning of conventional behaviours by imitation, peer humanization, the degrading sight provided by artificial concentration of people with disability, the low expectations of special institutions, or even other arguments normally evoked in discussions on this topic. We believe that the main argument lies in the undoubtedly anti-natural but obviously civilisation’s right to integration, independently of the characteristics (appearances) of a physical, mental, cultural or of other nature that distinguish an individual from the majority of people. Therefore, and independently of the results on how it is enforced, integration, as stated earlier, is an ethical imperative. And when we come across results that are not so good when applying the integrationist ideal, what we need to do is to alter the strategies that led to ineffective intervention and not abdicate of the ethical principle that informs it.
At the end of the 1980s, the concept of integration developed into the concept of inclusion. What is required now is not that the person with a disability is merely accepted or tolerated by society’s ordinary structures, but that he or she starts to play a relevant role in it

The ideal of positive discrimination of people with disability was also inherent to this new paradigm: Our co-citizens must be paid more attention, particularly regarding their sanitary, educational, and, generally speaking, social needs.

In the 21st century, more precisely in 2009, following an extraordinary and visionary formulation made by the great Portuguese advertiser, Dr. Pedro Bidarra, the concept of inclusion underwent a major evolution. Much more than including or positively discriminating people with disabilities, handicaps or vulnerabilities, what is now required is that they are valued for their differences. This means we need to stop being understanding, respectful or tolerant of people who are different, but that, instead, we value, in a positive way, the differences that each one of them have. This is not an easy process at all, given that it will require a profound change of mentalities. However, this is unquestionably the utopia we will pursue in future.

It is for the sake of engaging with this utopia – Valuing Differences – that we appeal to the entire Medical School, particularly its students.

The present text is dedicated to Dr. Ofélia Guerreiro, an unparalleled figure of Portuguese paediatrics who, despite having views that differ from ours, has fought all her life, in an unmatched and intransigent way, for the dignity of the newly born bearers of disabilities.

 

Miguel Palha
Paediatrician
Child Development Centre DIFERENÇAS (DIFFERENCES)
Lisbon
miguelpalha@diferencas.net

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Index - News # 17 | out/nov. 2010
 Editorial Note
 Hospital for Small Children
 Recorded interview with Professor Gomes-Pedro
 Interview Professor Paulo Ramalho 
 T. Berry Brazelton, MD – João Carlos Gomes Pedro Homage
 Cultural Soirée of the 100th anniversary of FMUL
 Last Lecture by Professor João Carlos Gomes-Pedro
 Opening of the 2010/2011 Academic Year Ceremony – University of Lisbon
 Medicine Evening 2010
 Medical Students Street Party
 Facilities, Equipments, and Information Technologies Unit
 Invitation to Participate in the 13th “Education for Science” Workshop
 Publications FMUL/HSM/IMM
 Lecturers’ Participation in Academic Examination Panels in other institutions(by 31 October 2010)
 FMUL students awarded prizes at the 5th YES Meeting
 IMM Seminars
 An ongoing PhD thesis in Pediatric Research: Interventions and Outcomes in Clinical Trials of Bronchiolitis
 Words to Professor J. Gomes-Pedro
 Bags and Rucksacks: “weights” today and “burdens” tomorrow (PART I)
 Feeding newborn babies at risk
 Valuing Differences
 Sexual education in schools
 Health at Schools Programme
 Cardio-pneumologists at the Paediatric Laboratory For Respiratory Function Studies
 Neonatology, The perspective of a neonatologist at Santa Maria Hospital 
 Introduction to Medicine – Subject Development and Episodes in the Life of a Member of Staff
 Paediatric Origins of Chronic Pulmonary Disease in Adults
 Breastfeeding the Turning Point in 2010
 The importance of a multidisciplinary team in child development
 Science and Health Research 
 Hospital Indicators of the Pediatric University Unity
 Social Values Stock Exchange: “Is Laughing the Best Therapy?” Project
 Swine Flu (H1N1) Pandemics in Portugal (1918-2009): echoes and schisms of the past in the present
 Course “ABC of Clinical Genetics” 2010
 14th Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Society of Human Genetics – 18-20 November 2010
 Workshop “Looking for the Clown Inside You” – 20 November
 Food Bank Against Hunger – 27 and 28 November
 Caminho Book Market – From 29 of November to 17 of December
 ENJOY Med’10 – Deadline for submitting abstracts: 30 November
 Grande Prémio Fundação AstraZeneca 2010
 Obituary
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100 AnosPropriedade e Edição: Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa NIPC: 502662875  Periodicidade: Mensal  Diretor: Prof. Doutor Fausto J. Pinto Conselho Editorial: Prof. Doutor Fausto J. Pinto, Profª. Doutora Ana Sebastião, Prof. Doutor Mamede de Carvalho, Prof. Doutor António Vaz Carneiro, Prof. Doutor Miguel Castanho, Dr. Luís Pereira  Equipa Editorial:  Ana Raquel Moreira, Cristina Bastos, Isabel Varela, Joana Sousa, Maria de Lurdes Barata, Rui Gomes, Sónia Teixeira  Colaboração:  Gabinete de Relações Públicas, Internacionais e Comunicação  Versão Inglesa: AP|PORTUGAL- Language Services  Conceção: Metatexto, Lda. e-mail: news@medicina.ulisboa.pt  Sede do Editor e Sede da Redação: Avenida Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa Estatuto Editorial Anotado na ERC 

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