Free Republic

A New Hampshire state representative exasperated by budget cuts to programs serving disabled people has mockingly suggested the next step would be euthanasia. NH1 reports that the comment by Democratic Rep. Michael Cahill of Newmarket came during Wednesday’s budget debate. Cahill said since budget writers “are refusing to raise revenues” to fund programs for the disabled, “have you looked at euthanasia?” …

Tyshon VanBlueA Davenport man faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a mentally disabled person at a Davenport residential care facility in August. Tyshon M. VanBlue, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single count of third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors from Story County will drop five counts of third-degree sex abuse stemming from an unrelated case involving two Special Olympics participants. VanBlue will be sentenced April 15. VanBlue's plea comes less than a week before he was to be tried in the Scott County case. VanBlue,...

Woman speaking about the father of her aborted baby. they aborted a previously wanted baby because amniocentesis showed that the child was handicapped: “Even though he wasn’t talking, I think he may have taken it a little bit harder than even I did, because he seemed to be more afraid to try again… I was more optimistic, and I guess he was still grieving, and I was already on to, “okay, let’s try this again.” But he wasn’t ready, he was more afraid. Even when he’s not talking, I know what he’s feeling.” Rayna Rapp Testing Women, Testing the Fetus:...

The pro-life movement is all-too-familiar with offensive wrongful birth lawsuits — but here’s something very different. The wrongful birth suit is brought by the parents of a sick or disabled child against a physician that, the parents say, was negligent. Wrongful birth lawsuits claim the doctor failed to inform the parents of the illness or disability of the child and that had they known, they would have aborted their child. In other words, the parents are saying we wish our child was dead. In a new lawsuit, parents are suing because the child is already dead — having been aborted...

The house at 27 Crocus Place is listed on property tax statements for $1.06 million, but neighbors consider it priceless. Built in 1902, the yellow, two-story Victorian sits on a bluff, overlooking Pleasant Avenue and Interstate 35E. In November, trial attorney Fred Pritzker and his wife, Renee, bought the 4,200-square-foot home from his brother and sister-in-law with a singular goal: to tear it down and replace it with one that is more accessible to the disabled. At 64, Pritzker said he is slowly losing function on the left side of his body; at some point soon, he'll need a walker...

Charles L. Bosk, a writer and researcher, spent time in a pediatric hospital where doctors and nurses took care of disabled and/or premature babies. Sometimes, when disabled babies were born (despite the program’s efforts to detect and abort them), the parents didn’t want them. Bosk wrote about a couple that chose not to treat their disabled baby with routine surgery, but instead allowed the child to die: She [the woman who counseled the parents] reported that the parents had decided not only that they did not want to repair the child’s oomphalecele, but they wanted the child to die, and...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two North Kansas City parents are outraged after they say their blind son’s cane was taken away from him at school by a bus driver. Eight-year-old Dakota Nafzinger attends Gracemor Elementary School. Rachel Nafzinger said school staff took away her son’s cane as punishment for bad behavior on the bus and then gave him a swimming pool noodle to use as a substitute. The school wouldn’t go on camera, but North Kansas City School District Spokeswoman Michelle Cronk confirmed taking away Dakota’s cane, calling it school property that was given to him when he enrolled. They...

A North Korean defector gives a horrible account of how people with mental or physical disabilities are seen as a stain on the nation's image and are therefore used for performing experiments before being deliberately neglected until they die. "Disabled children are being taken away, suffering indescribable things and dying," said Ji Seong-ho, who escaped North Korea in 2006 after losing his left leg above the knee and his left hand at the wrist. Ji, the founder of the organization Now, Action, Unity, Human Rights, or NAUH, who was in London this week to protest outside the North Korean embassy,...

North Korea is systematically purging its disabled population by making them disappear from public sight, subjecting them to chemical weapons tests and castrating them, defectors claimed today. Ji Seong-ho, 32, who escaped after he himself suffered horrific treatment after losing a leg and hand, said the Kim Jong-un's regime felt 'humiliated' by them. He claims babies with mental and physical disabilities are routinely snatched from hospitals and left to suffer 'indescribable things' until they die. Two other defectors also told him of a village in a remote mountain region that had been effectively turned into an asylum to house people...

NDERSON, Ind. (Dec. 1, 2014)– No formal charges have been filed yet in a severe case of child neglect in Madison County, and police are looking at the possibility of additional suspects. Anderson’s trauma team was called to a house Monday in the 3400 block of Forest Terrace Drive on a report of a 15-year-old girl suffering from severe malnutrition. Police say she now only weighs 35 pounds. Police say the teen is mentally disabled and was covered in feces. The girl’s grandfather, Steve Sells, 58, has been arrested and will face preliminary child neglect charges. He is currently on...

Election officials in San Antonio, Texas are examining a disabled voting machine after it allegedly left Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott's name off of the ballot. Earlier on Tuesday, the machine was being utilized in Bexar County's First Chinese Baptist Church of San Antonio. Bexar County Election Administrator Jacque Callan told local media outlet KENS 5 that the machine was "experiencing issues." According to Callan, the machine has a counter which will allow election officials to determine exactly how many voters used it. At this point, there is no explanation as to how -- or why -- the glitch occurred.

Parents of 9-year-old boy with special needs who died weighing 17 pounds and was found locked in his 'feces-covered room' are charged with murder A husband and wife have been charged in the death of their 9-year-old son, whose decomposing body was found in a 'feces-covered room' in their home this past August. Police filed criminal homicide charges earlier today against Kimberly A. Tutko and Jarrod N. Tutko Sr., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, saying their neglect caused the death of their son Jarrod Jr. Jarrod Jr., who was diagnosed with Fragile X syndrome as an infant, weighed just 17 pounds at...

A disabled baby has died after a major battle in France pitted the parents of a disabled prematurely-born baby against doctors — as the parents wanted doctors to stop life support for their son because he is severely disabled. The baby boy, named Titouan was born on August 31, four months before he was slated to be born. The baby weighed two pounds at birth and suffered from an intracerebral haemorrhage. Doctors at University Hospital Center of Poitiers said he has brain damage and they were unable to determine the extent of it. The baby’s parents, Mélanie and Aurélien, said...

FULL TITLE: Parents Want to Stop Life Support for Baby Because He’s Disabled: Who Wants Their Son to be Handicapped? A major battle in France pits the parents of a disabled prematurely-born baby against doctors — as the parents want doctors to stop life support for their son because he is severely disabled. The baby boy, named Titouan was born on August 31, four months before he was slated to be born. The baby weighed two pounds at birth and suffered from an intracerebral haemorrhage. Doctors at University Hospital Center of Poitiers say he has brain damage and they are...

FULL TITLE: Surrogate mother of twins who gave birth to disabled girl was told by woman she intended to give the child to that she 'didn't want a dribbling cabbage' A British surrogate mother says she will raise a disabled girl as her own after the baby's intended mother said she didn't want a 'dribbling cabbage' as her child. The child, born with Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy, was one of twins the surrogate mother was paid £12,000 in expenses to give birth to. The story shows remarkable similarities to that of baby Gammy, a Down's syndrome baby born to a Thai...

Above: Employees of the nightshift at Lowe’s in Staten Island, New York - David, Marcus and Souleyman - get to work.by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsVeteran Michael Sulsona had been waiting on a new wheelchair from the VA for years. But as with so many vets suffering under scandalous conditions in the VA system, he got nowhere. His wheelchair was rickety and always seemed on the verge of collapse. Then one day it did exactly that-- right when he was shopping in a Staten Island-area Lowe's. But what happened next That’s when three strangers stepped right in to help...

At a time when election officials are struggling to convince more Americans to vote, advocates for the disabled say thousands of people with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other intellectual or developmental disabilities have been systematically denied that basic right in the nation’s largest county. A Voting Rights Act complaint to be filed Thursday with the U.S. Justice Department goes to a politically delicate subject that states have grappled with over the years: Where is the line to disqualify someone from the voting booth because of a cognitive or developmental impairment? The complaint by the Disability and Abuse Project...

CORPUS CHRISTI - The city of Corpus Christi on Tuesday announced it can not come up with all of the money needed to repay the federal government for a failed, public housing project. The news comes on the heels of a KRIS-6 Investigation into the League of United Latin American Citizens - Apartment of the Village project, a low-income housing unit for disabled veterans. But the project derailed and the money, disappeared. After years of delay, the city sued the league to recover the $400,000 block grant which city leaders approved, in 2008. That is because the city, not L.U.L.A.C.,...

Wednesday, 'Wheel of Fortune' had a very inspirational contestant in Trent Girone. The 21-year-old Peoria, Ariz., resident is a self-described "Wheel of Fortune" fanatic, but more important, he's the first special needs contestant ever to compete on the show.Girone has had nine brain surgeries and has both Asperger's and Tourette's syndromes, but that didn't stop him from taking early control of the wheel by successfully guessing the first puzzle, "a smashing success." Girone ultimately didn't win the game -- he hit the dreaded Bankrupt slot -- but he won viewer hearts from coast-to-coast.  WATCH:

Washington, DC (LiveActionNews) — Bristol Palin spotlighted the amazing and heartbreaking story of Sophia Kyla Dennis, daughter of Lindsey and Kevin. At 20 weeks pregnant, Lindsey and Kevin were given the devastating news that their daughter had a brain disorder that was 100% fatal. Rather than having an abortion, they gave birth to their beautiful baby, and got to enjoy 10 hours with her. “The 10 best hours of my life,” is how Lindsey Dennis describes her short time with Sophia Kyla, born last fall. Lindsey and husband Kevin found out at the 20th week of her pregnancy that Sophia...