I think there is a blanket way to look at this. Don't assume that someone cannot be an adequate caregiver to their own child based on a physical, mental, or emotional disability. Treat parents with disabilities exactly as you would treat any other biological or legal parent.
The reason this is an issue is because that case worker and the system didn't do that. They discriminated against the mother based on her disability. That is why her rights were violated.
I think discrimination is a word used much too often in our culture. This case worker was wrong in the manner in which she did this, yes.
However someone does not flippantly obtain a diagnosis of ID. The ability of anyone with this as an accurate dx to raise a child on their own safely is low, I'd say nearly nonexistent. This is not something like dyslexia, add etc.
Discrimination is what was found by the audit. She was discriminated against because of her special needs. Making an assumption about the specifics of an individual's abilities or lack of abilities based solely on a label without knowing that individual is exactly what discrimination is.
Again, she wasn't going to raise the child on her own. That wasn't the plan. But that isn't to say that someone with ID couldn't safely raise a child on their own. There are certainly people who have borderline IQs or those in the mild ID range who never get a diagnosis and live relatively normal lives with families.
Why are you pitting the mom against the child, as if their needs and best interests are at odds? Studies show that it is always in a child's best interest to be raised by his or her biological family, barring abuse or neglect. Period. It is why our foster care system works so hard to work with biological parents to give them assistance and goals to meet so that they can become safe parents to their children and their families can be reunited. Children who are raised without a connection to their biological families are at a higher risk for depression, anxiety, and others difficulties throughout life.
We are not talking about 3 meals and 4 walls here. That's what kids in foster care all too frequently get. This mom can provide not only love, as you suppose, but a sense of self, belonging, self esteem, the ability to form healthy attachments and relationships...all just by being there as mom to her baby. The rest would come in the form of support from her parents and community.
As for your side-comment indicating your opinion that people with delays shouldn't be allowed to procreate, shame on you! What a slippery slope you stand on. If love to hear who else you feel doesn't deserve the basic human right to have children.
ETA: Just do you know, several of us in this post are additive parents or have seriously considered adopting, so we aren't against the idea of foster car/adoption in its own right. We just understand that there is an immeasurable value in a child being raised by his or her birth parents, if at all possible. And that *all* people have a basic human right to children, and raising those children if they can do so safely and without neglect or abuse.
I'm not certain how this turned into an adoptive/ foster issue. I've considered it myself and have no issue with it. That's not what I was speaking to at all. Of course this child would be better off with her bio family but no one stepped up to care for her and someone felt this woman was not capable of raising her child. Now, did they go about it correctly? No.
One would hope/ assume that the grandparents would support the baby but what the article left out and what we don't know is if they did or could. Should a community support a mother with difficulty raising her child? Yes. In reality are those people available?
And do you really feel someone with significant delays should have a child? Is that what is best for them and for that child?
. I do know that depending on how high functioning my child ends up being or not I may counsel him not to have a child if he can't take care of them fully. . I Feel its responsible to avoid known genetic issues in future children. Try spending some time with an adult with ASD or a developmental delay and this may change your perspective.
I am a certified adaptive ski instructor and work with children and adults with developmental delays, traumatic brain injuries, intellectual disabilities, autism, and other physical disabilities on a regular bases, and have done so for the last 11 years. In fact, it was my experience in that field that led me to feel confident adopting two children with significant special needs of their own. So I do understand, very clearly, the range of ways and extremes that various special needs can affect an individual, and that no reliable generalizations about a person's abilities can be drawn based solely on their diagnosis.
As to your point that no grandparent or family member came forward, the grandmother planned to help raise the child from the start!
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