RE: "it can just as easily be argued that familial instincts can be nurtured and strengthened regardless of how we treat the mentally retarded. In fact, in many cultures, the mentally retarded are indeed "thrown to the wolves," and this is deemed perfectly acceptable, even in cultures with strong family-based traditions"
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Having a sister that is mentally retarded, I can definitely say that throwing her to the wolves would not strengthen family relationships. She is a social butterfly connecting each of us to the others.
Anyone that has taught mentally retarded people will know they have a love stronger than any average person.
Some of my Asian friends are impressed with how my sister is the center of my family. They were taught a perfect family image (read: hide your handicapped children in a closet so the parents can feel perfect), perfection, and plastic surgery to create that perfect personal image were more important than what's inside. (You were correct in using plastic surgery as an example to Tejek.) Some societies are simply less evolved in some ways.
RE: "Plus it could be argued that supporting these retarded family members puts an unnecessary strain"
A recent study has shown that raising a handicapped child will age the parents by ten years. The research study was conducted by SF medical researchers and they measured fabrics of DNA to determine the destruction. It was a CNN article. Very interesting.
Of course, it would help if our society helped rather than dumped more of a burden onto the parent's of handicapped children. Our society in general doesn't give any support to families of the handicapped. There's no $100 fine for calling a mentally retarded child a bad name. It's perfectly okay for society to inflict further emotional damage onto a mentally retarded child.
Another example, Cupertino High School received 3,000 phone calls from people outside of California after a teacher was told not to distribute God material in a public school. Meanwhile, this same school had an incident where the teacher smashed a mentally retarded girl's head onto the cement floor repeatedly. Funny how the school didn't receive a single phone call from these same so-called religious people that "care". Hypocrits. Their type of religion is all talk, but no show. Cold, control freaks is what they are (the ones that called over God material while ignoring the plight of the mentally retarded girl.)
Regards,
Amy J |
