title: The case for conserving disability.
abstract: It is commonly believed that disability disqualifies people from full participation in or recognition by society. This view is rooted in eugenic logic, which tells us that our world would be a better place if disability could be eliminated. In opposition to this position, I argue that that disability is inherent in the human condition and consider the bioethical question of why we might want to conserve rather than eliminate disability from our shared world. To do so, I draw together an eclectic, rather than systematic, configuration of counter-eugenic arguments for conserving disability. The idea of preserving intact, keeping alive, and even encouraging to flourish denoted by conserve suggests that disabilities would be better understood as benefits rather than deficits. I present, then, a reading of disability as a potentially generative resource rather than unequivocally restrictive liability. In other words, what I consider here is the cultural and material contributions disability offers to the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Studies, Emory University, Candler Library, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. rgarlan@emory.edu
authors.forename: Rosemarie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garland-Thomson
mesh_terms: D001675:Bioethics; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005053:Eugenics; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D012935:Social Justice; D012945:Social Values