Free Republic

When Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services announced in 2019 that Polk and White Haven Centers, two large state-operated institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, would close by November 2022—claiming that moving residents to “community-based settings” would better honor their “inherent worth and dignity”—it spelled the end of two campuses that had housed the intellectually and developmentally disabled for more than 50 years. It also sparked a political fight between disability-rights activists, who hailed the closures as a step toward full inclusion for people with disabilities, and many residents and their families, who feared losing what they considered their...

It can’t be said too often that too often we know too little about history–and what we do know often is either wrong or incomplete.  Over the years we’ve posted many stories that buttress and support what remains to many, many people an unknown historical truth–the Nazis “refined” their murderous system with their notorious Aktion T-4 euthanasia program.As Peter Saunders has so eloquently written, “The horrific genocide of six million Jews was in fact only the final chapter in the Nazi holocaust story.”  Beginning in 1939, 300,000 disabled people “were gassed or given a lethal injection and cremated in six...

Today the former House Speaker gave a press conference and annouced that republicans who voted for the Protect Life Act, a bill that strips the funding of abortion out of ObamaCare, want women to "die on the floor." Not quite Pelosi, republicans simply believe helpless babies shouldn't be killed in the womb. Pelosi: Republicans Want Women To "Die On The Floor!"LifeNews has more on the legislation: The House approved a bill, the Protect Life Act, to stop abortion funding in Obamacare. Senate Democrats are not expected to approve the bill and, pro-abortion President Barack Obama is expected to veto the...

After years of telling us not to call people “retarded” any more, the Democrats are using the word! That big fat new health care law talks about hospitals taking care of “the mentally retarded”! Between that, the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – can somebody tell me how we’re supposed to talk anymore? Even Obama doesn’t know. The Teleprompter Kid joked on Jay Leno that his bowling was “like the Special Olympics.” How come liberals who get mad when people say words like “retarded” are EXACTLY the same folks who made...

Can someone here enlighten me on this matter? Are there rules as to which of these folks can vote and under which circumstances? I know that Dear Leader ticked off the families and friends of Special Olympians and the disabled in general last night, but will many of the MR community be able to vote against him? Forgive me if my language isn't as PC as some would like, as I don't play that game. Thanks!

<p>Congressman Ron Paul spoke at the memorial service for Aaron Russo Friday morning in West Hollywood, California.</p> <p>Mr. Russo had a long and accomplished career in the entertainment industry and was a leading advocate in the freedom movement. He was one of the first public figures to endorse Dr. Paul for president in January of this year.</p>

YORKTOWN, Va. -- Is Daryl Atkins mentally retarded? That question will be the sole focus of a trial set to begin this week, and the answer will determine whether he lives or dies. Atkins, 27, is the Virginia inmate whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court three years ago to bar execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutionally cruel. Yet he has remained on death row for the 1996 robbery and murder of an Air Force enlisted man. While the high court's ruling protected the severely mentally retarded, it provided little guidance for the far greater number of inmates, like...

February 6, 2005 Inmate's Rising I.Q. Score Could Mean His Death By ADAM LIPTAK ORKTOWN, Va., Feb. 3 - Three years ago, in the case of a Virginia man named Daryl R. Atkins, the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. But Mr. Atkins's recent test scores could eliminate him from that group.His scores have shot up, a defense expert said, thanks to the mental workout his participation in years of litigation gave him. The Supreme Court, which did not decide whether Mr. Atkins was retarded, noted that he scored 59 on...

Mixed reaction in Texas to Supreme Court decision 06/20/2002 Associated Press AUSTIN - Supporters of a ban on executing the mentally retarded in Texas were jubilant Thursday after a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such executions are unconstitutionally cruel. Opponents, meanwhile, initially reacted with silence, saying they needed more time to review the high court decision. "I'm elated," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who last year filed a bill to ban the execution of the mentally retarded in Texas that was vetoed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry. Ellis told The Associated Press that he planned...

<p>Washington, June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Constitution bars executions of mentally retarded killers, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, reversing a decision it made 13 years ago and ending a practice permitted in 20 states.</p> <p>The 6-3 decision, invoking the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, said ``evolving standards of decency'' preclude sentencing the retarded to death. The ruling came in the case of a Virginia man convicted of a 1996 murder.</p>