Free Republic

[I lover science! The one thing I would add is that the tech advances that make these sorts of inventions possible came from the free market. That’s why we can all afford smart phones and computers. Get the government out of medical stuff and these sorts of things could be more widely available.]Future Transhumanist Tech May Soon Change The Definition Of DisabilityBy Zoltan Istvan Radical technologies around the world may soon overhaul the field of disability and immobility, which affects in some way more than a billion people around the world. MIT bionics designer Hugh Herr, who lost both his...

Editor’s note. This appeared on the blog of the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF). Disabled_Child-192x128When I went to see the midwife at 36 weeks of pregnancy, I did not expect to find myself leaving in the back of an ambulance. My BP [blood pressure] was 200/115 and there were 4 pluses of protein in my urine. My non-medical husband was bewildered and we both wondered what would happen next. A few hours later, my BP was 160/100, but an ultrasound had shown that our baby was very small – about the size you’d expect at 28 weeks. There were no structural...

Many people don’t get the opportunity to come face-to-face with a person who has a disability. Rarer still is getting an honest view of how a person feels about their disability. But millions caught a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary individual living with a disability after actor Ashton Kutcher shared the following video with 18 million of his followers on social media. Cashel Gardner is a 17-year-old living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which, for Cashel, means that he cannot move, breathe, talk, or eat on his own. But he made this video to show that his life is...

The federal government is financing the creation of robots that can assist the elderly and make sure they are eating healthily.A nearly $800,000 project from the National Science Foundation (NSF) is pairing the University of Pennsylvania with a robot company to create the machines, which will be able to deliver glasses of water to senior citizens.The government said that the project is necessary due to a demographic crisis in America where soon there will not be enough young people to take care of their elders.“This Partnership For Innovation project develops and tests the use of service robots to monitor and...

(CNSNews.com) – The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed corporations to reduce their health care costs by rewarding employees for voluntarily participating in workplace “wellness” programs to help them lose weight or stop smoking. But now three of those programs are the target of discrimination lawsuits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which says they are neither voluntary nor legal. EEOC recently filed its third wellness lawsuit, claiming that Honeywell International, Inc.’s ACA-approved wellness program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Honeywell recently informed employees and their spouses who were enrolled in the company’s health benefits plan that...

I do not care very much about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s waning influence on American political life. But I confess an ongoing fascination with Palin as a media phenomenon. As she vacillates between the Fox News stints that keep her political clout alive and the reality television gigs that seem like a more natural fit for her talents, I always wonder whether this is the moment that she will commit to a single path. The debut of the Sarah Palin Channel, a subscription-based multimedia site that Palin and her team launched yesterday, is a disappointing combination of these muddled...

It is a shameful act of discrimination for a business to turn away someone who returned home after being at war with battle scars that cannot be visibly seen. But, that’s precisely what happened to one veteran while vacationing in Florida. Not only is it an act of discrimination, but also what this hotel, and many others, did to this veteran is against the law. (Watch Video at the link) Former Army Sgt. Robert Price simply wanted to find a place to sleep while he was on vacation in Daytona Beach, FL. He was not alone. He had with him...

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cleared a first-of-a-kind blood test that can help diagnose mental disabilities in babies by analyzing their genetic code. The laboratory test from Affymetrix detects variations in patients’ chromosomes that are linked to Down syndrome, DiGeorge syndrome and other developmental disorders. About 2 to 3 percent of U.S. children have some sort of intellectual disability, according to the National Institutes of Health. …

The US Justice Department is intervening in a private lawsuit against H&R Block for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. H&R Block is a large provider of American tax services and informational services for tax payers.

Aaron Rodgers might be out for a few weeks with a fractured collarbone, but that doesn't mean he can't get one of his fans really, really excited anyway. As you can see in the video -- which I assume was made before the Packers quarterback injured himself -- Rodgers helps make music with 13-year-old Kelly, who suffers from spina bifida.

April 10, 2013 (LiveActionNews.org) - Now that prenatal testing can so easily detect babies with physical and mental disabilities, more and more women are choosing to abort their children if something is wrong with them. For example, up to 92% of women whose tests show that they are carrying babies with Down syndrome abort. Some women have successfully sued doctors for the “wrongful life” of babies who were born handicapped, claiming that their doctors should have detected the anomaly so they could abort. Perhaps this is one reason why many doctors urge their pregnant patients to undergo amniocentesis, a test...

Yesterday the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to ratify the treaty. The White House expressed its dissatisfaction saying, in part, “We are disappointed that the overwhelming majority of Senate Republicans today blocked the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which would enshrine American standards that have been developed through decades of bipartisan cooperation.” The treaty is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations to protect individuals with disabilities. Parties are bound Under the Convention to ensure that disabled people enjoy the same human...

Marie Freyre was born with cerebral palsy and fluid surrounding her brain. She suffered from life-threatening seizures. Even after Marie Freyre died alone in a nursing home 250 miles from the family in North Tampa that loved her, Marie's mother had to fight to bring her home.In March 2011, state child protection investigators took 14-year-old Marie from her mother, Doris Freyre, claiming Doris' own disabilities made it almost impossible for her to care for Marie, who suffered from seizures and severe cerebral palsy. But a Tampa judge signed an order that Marie be returned to her mother, with in-home nursing...

When the facts and law are not in one’s favor, there is a natural temptation to appeal to the emotions of your target audience in order to win an argument. This is referred to as argumentum ad passiones—an attempt to manipulate an audience’s emotions by pulling on their heartstrings in order to bring them to your side. Such is the case with Senator John Kerry’s (D–MA) appeal in today’s Huffington Post in support of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international human rights treaty that is scheduled for an up-or-down vote tomorrow at noon. …...

Who wouldn’t support a treaty with the language in its title that says it is for “Rights of Persons with Disabilities”? Turns out many Republicans oppose the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and their reasons are worth taking a look at again, even if the arguments are not necessarily new. The Senate discussed the U.N.’s CRPD, which was completed in 2006, last week. Republicans held to their objection for taking up an international treaty during a lame-duck session of Congress, but debate for it will be on the floor Tuesday. As Betsy Woodruff for National...

Who wouldn’t support a treaty with the language in its title that says it is for “Rights of Persons with Disabilities”? Turns out many Republicans oppose the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and their reasons are worth taking a look at again, even if the arguments are not necessarily new. The Senate discussed the U.N.’s CRPD, which was completed in 2006, last week. Republicans held to their objection for taking up an international treaty during a lame-duck session of Congress, but debate for it will be on the floor Tuesday. As Betsy Woodruff for National...

Rights: The Senate is considering a treaty which says "disability is an evolving concept" and which would infringe on U.S. sovereignty and the right to raise our children as American families see fit. Those who thought that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) adequately guaranteed the rights of the handicapped to have access to all facets of American life were apparently wrong. The U.S. Senate is considering ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which President Obama signed in 2009 and which goes well beyond mandating wheel-chair ramps for public buildings. CRPD doesn't even bother to...

Rights: The Senate is considering a treaty which says "disability is an evolving concept" and which would infringe on U.S. sovereignty and the right to raise our children as American families see fit. Those who thought that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) adequately guaranteed the rights of the handicapped to have access to all facets of American life were apparently wrong. The U.S. Senate is considering ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which President Obama signed in 2009 and which goes well beyond mandating wheel-chair ramps for public buildings. CRPD doesn't even bother to...

There may actually be some good news coming out of academia. “This really is a profession that has run amok,” Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic said of psychiatrists in a recent interview with Celeste McGovern which appeared in Citizen magazine. “People are beginning to question its legitimacy and they are beginning to mistrust its values, its diagnoses and its treatments.” McGovern writes that, “Even medical students are avoiding it, he adds, as the average age of psychiatrists is now 57.” Citizen is published by Focus on the Family. McGovern is based in the United Kingdom. “Every day...

Via e-mail today July 25, 2012 Senate Committee Vote Today on UN Treaty—Keep Calling! Michael Farris is founder and chairman of Homeschooling Legal Defense Assocation HSLDA, and homeschooling father of 10. Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: After a brief postponement the U.S. Senate has decided to continue to push forward the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and has scheduled a mark-up and committee vote for tomorrow. As we have mentioned in previous updates, HSLDA believes that this treaty, while sounding good in name, could become a tool to restrict our rights as citizens and...