Frida links

for the week 5/30/2008 to 6/6/2008

CBC Canada reports that an intensive-care specialist, Dr. Anand Kumar, has resigned from a Winnipeg hospital rather than obey a court order to continue treating an elderly man on life support because he believes efforts to keep him alive are "grotesque" and "immoral." The man, Samuel Golubchuk, 84, has been on life support since last fall. Kumar and others doctors wanted to remove him from life support, but Golubchuk's relatives have argued that would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew.

A man has been arrestd for allegedly raping a woman with spina bifida and developmental disabilities in her Orem (Salt Lake City, Utah) home, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Channel 7 (Australia) has apologized for an episode of the hospital drama "All Saints," in which a woman pregnant from an incestuous relationship with her brother is told her child may have Down syndrome as a result, the Melbourne Age reports. The episode prompted an outcry by Down Syndrome Australia, who is considering legal action if a correction is not aired on the program. "There is absolutely no increase in the risk of Down syndrome or of other chromosomal conditions for the offspring of incestuous relationships," said the leader of clinical genetic research at Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

South African amputee Natalie Du Toit qualified for the Beijing Olympics last Saturday after she finished fourth in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships, Reuters reports.

A Northeast Philadelphia mother is angered by the way her son, who has autism, has been treated by Stephen Decatur School. According to Dawn Elliot, while the rest of his class went on a field trip, her son, who was supposted to enjoy a day of learning, sat in class practically alone, CBS3 reports.

Disability rights advocates are urging Governor Rod Blagojevich to shut down the Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park for adults with developmental disabilities, the Chicago Tribune reports. Since 2005, 20 people have died at Howe due to substandard care and neglect, according to the non-profit group Equip for Equality. The US Department of Justice is now investigating the institution for civil rights violations.

An investigation continues into a Dale County (Ozark, Alabama) woman who allegedly exploited the assets of at least one women with a disability, the Dothan Eagle reports.

A British couple who have learning difficulties were awarded 97,000 pounds in damages after being attacked and humiliated by a gang of youths in their home over a weekend in late 2000, the Richmond Twickenham Times (UK) reports.

The Washington Post profiles prima ballerina Rossana Peñaloza, who decided to spend six months in a wheelchair, and then created a performance from that experience to bring attention to Mexico's attitudes toward disabled people (thanks to media-dis-n-dat for the link).