British Report: Needs Of Families Are Not Met
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
November 6, 2006

YORK, ENGLAND--Economic and social needs are not being met for families that have children with disabilities, according to a report in last Saturday's British Medical Journal.

Social policy experts from the University of York claim that such families have higher than average levels of stress -- and that about 55 percent of them live in poverty -- but that the government has failed to address those needs.

The researchers suggested that National Health Service primary care trusts could play an important role by better assessing the family's needs, and linking those families with local resources.

The day after the report was published, doctors at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggested that doctors should be allowed to deliberately kill babies with disabilities. In a story reported in the Times of London, the RCOG reasoned that having the euthanasia option available could spare families the economic and social stress associated with raising such a child.

Related:
"Most families of disabled children 'living in poverty'" (Yorkshire Post)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1107d.htm
"Abstract -- Families with disabled children" (British Medical Journal)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7575/928

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Reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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