By Judie Brown
Recently Meghan Schrader, a defender of the rights of people with disabilities, came to my attention because of a two-part article she wrote on the fallout of using the word “retarded” to define certain members of the human family.
According to Merriam-Webster, the word retarded is “dated, now offensive: affected by intellectual disability: INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED.”
But having read the writings of many legitimate ethics professionals, including Schrader, I have come away with an even more startling discovery regarding those who are steeped in the mire of detestation for people they deem as less than perfect. As Schrader so skillfully stated in 2023 testimony regarding laws protecting death by assisted suicide, “Disabled people already experience a higher rate of suicide than the general population and peer-reviewed research indicates that people are more likely to think suicide is acceptable if the victim has a disability. Passing these laws clearly further normalizes the sentiment that disabled people’s suicides might be a good thing, and that’s a monstrous way for society to bully people in the disabled community.”
Considering her insights even for a nanosecond, one realizes that the idea of trivializing certain persons has become increasingly popular since the advent of the theory that if human embryos can be dehumanized and thus considered disposable, why not expand the thought? We know that throughout history, such ideas have been literally imposed by those in power, and we suspect that such individuals have lost their awareness of morality or conveniently denied its existence. Into such treacherous waters wade the ogres who feel empowered to condemn people to death whether they are too young, too old, too weak, or otherwise unacceptable to their grisly sliding scale of human worthiness.
As ugly as this reality is, we cannot help but suggest that the solution lies before us and is a simple matter of truth-telling.
For example, when someone says that they have a retarded relative who is difficult to be with, we might counter with helpful insights.
First, the word retarded does not define a person created in the image of God, whereas special needs does. And once we use those two words, we see before us a fellow human being who requires our loving assistance, not rejection. And the truth is that every human being has special needs!
Second, we might offer the words of Saint John Paul II, who said during a symposium on the dignity and rights of the mentally disabled person:
The starting point for every reflection on disability is rooted in the fundamental convictions of Christian anthropology: even when disabled persons are mentally impaired or when their sensory or intellectual capacity is damaged, they are fully human beings and possess the sacred and inalienable rights that belong to every human creature. Indeed, human beings, independently of the conditions in which they live or of what they are able to express, have a unique dignity and a special value from the very beginning of their life until the moment of natural death.
And we can remember Professor Jerome Lejeune, who said of his patients with Down syndrome, “If I don’t protect them, I am nothing.”
The Holy Father and Professor Lejeune came to an appreciation of those with special needs out of a love for truth. This is so because human dignity is not a commodity that can be traded or erased, it is innate within the human person.
Society loves to categorize people based on intelligence, skin color, place of residence, and so on. But God has a different idea. After all, He is the one who created each of us, including those hell-bent on the dehumanization of others.
That is why R is never about retardation but always about the radiance that is a part of every human being in every stage of her life. We celebrate this gift, thank God for this blessing, and look upon our fellow human beings with absolute appreciation, radiating the love God has for us toward others.