FRIDA feminist-disability news links

03/21/08 to 03/28/08

Four months after he was declared dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, a 21-year-old man says he feels fine.

An 85-year-old woman who was hospitalized after she was found lying in her feces, died on Wednesday. Three relatives were taken into custody on suspicion of elder abuse. No charges have been filed. The case as been turned over to prosecutors.

A bill proposed to allow California women in their last three-months of pregnancy to qualify for temporary-disabled parking placards was rejected by a legislative committee. A similar bill was proposed four years ago, but was pulled after controversy. Opponents of the bill claim pregnant women need to be as active as possible, and said giving them access to disabled parking would limit the availability of placards for people with serious disabilities. Some women's groups also opposed defining pregnancy as a disability.

The safety of people with intellectual disabilities is a key concern as they move into the community in Buffalo (NY).

The Story of C.: Teaching Poetry to Children with Disabilities; Nicole Callihan, Teaching Artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Language Lecturer at New York University discusses teaching poetry to students with moderate to severe cognitive and intellectual disabilities with what she and her students call the “Magic Poetry Box.”

Jack Kevorkian, the assisted-suicide advocate who served eight years in prison for second-degree murder, announced Monday he's running for Congress as an independent. Kevorkian, 79, is challenging a Republican incumbent for a district in suburban Detroit.

Under proposals from members from Begium's coalition government, teenagers should have the right to medically assisted suicide and the parents of terminally ill younger children should be able to choose euthanasia.

A councillor from Britain's Conservative Party who suggested euthanasia as a means to cut the cost of caring for children with special needs has been suspended.