Disability voice lost in medical discrimination

This morning, Disability Rights Washington (DRW) and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) released “Devaluing People with Disabilities: Medical Procedures that Violate Civil Rights“.

The report joins the voices of people with disabilities, often lost in the din of medical decision making, with professionals from the disability civil rights field to explore unnecessary medical procedures imposed upon people with disabilities, or instances where needed medical intervention is denied individuals on the basis of disability.

The report comes five years after media accounts surfaced of a Seattle girl who, when six years’ old, was kept permanently small through a set of procedures now commonly called the “Ashley Treatment.” The procedure was later found to have violated her legal rights.

Options for additional information:

Visit the Ashley’s Rights Forum on DisAbility Rights Galaxy and join the conversation by posting your comments

Watch People with disabilities weigh-in on the Ashley Treatment

Vote in the poll in the left hand column of this page

See Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, discuss disability and medical decision-making