Writtem by Meriel Stanger
Try and imagine a perfect world, made up with perfect people who live forever – artificially being kept alive like living Barbie dolls. That is not living. That is not the future I wish for. What is perfection? Take me for example – I am perfectly me. Now you would look at me and ‘well, she is not perfect’ and you would be right. In your eyes perfection is something else. There is no right or wrong, just your opinion.
My name is Meriel Stanger and I’m a person with quite severe disabilities – quadriplegia and vision impairment as I am legally blind (to name a few) from a horse-riding accident in March 1995. Before my accident I was living that perfect life and thought I was bullet-proof! That is what I thought (I have a saying about thought - ‘I found a feather and thought I could grow a chicken!’), then I have realised through my experience that I was existing like ‘a mouse on an exercise wheel’ not living, not being true to myself and appreciating life with its fullness – foibles and all.
I enjoy the potential of all humans and am inspired by people who do their best with what they have got. The ability of being able to make their dreams come true and their aspirations come to fruition. Being human. By all means, if certain technologies enhance their ability, I say go for it.
The human experience of human emotions, such as getting pleasure from smelling, tasting, hearing, seeing or feeling nature, sunshine and the wind, and having the ability to develop your 6th sense of imagination. Experiencing a birth or a death or like me an accident, being at birth or post survival – all cycles of living life. There is definitely a cross over where one’s imagination becomes a technology reality.
Good Will is not something people with disability have enjoyed with abundance. Historically they have been murdered and ostracised as a matter of routine. Throughout the ancient world exposure of newborns with visible disabilities was common practice and approved by the likes of Plato and Aristotle.
The Christian Church equated disability with sin. Many witches burned during 15th and 16th centuries were disabled or had children with disability. Martin Luther, one of the founders of the protestant church, advocated drowning children with disability to drive evil from their bodies.
Fast forward 400 years or so, but remain in Germany – Adolf Hitler, whose monolithic lunacies included an obsessive determination to ensure the racial purity, enacted his compliant Cabinet to pass legislation in 1933 which permitted the forced sterilisations of people with disabilities such as genetic diseases, but not confident with that he euthanised people with disability as he considered them ‘useless eaters’ or ‘life unworthy of life’ not just Jews.
In Russia, under Stalin, soldiers preferred death to living (existing) life with a disability.
Winston Churchill was a staunch supporter of eugenics. He was in favour of sterilising the ‘feeble minded’. He was the Vice chairman of the 1st International Eugenics Congress in London.
It is as though they all came out to play during the 2nd World War!!
I know a lady who 30 years ago was told her foetus had Down’s syndrome and that she should terminate the child – that went against everything she believed, she would love the child regardless, so continued with the pregnancy and had a perfectly healthy son. How many perfect children had their life terminated for no good reason?
Other families have welcomed their ‘imperfect’ child into their hearts and would no more think of putting them down than flying to the moon!
To name a few from birth disabilities; Down’s Syndrome, Autism & Cerebral Palsy - I know there are many myths and opinions about these disabilities but the reality is that these children have arrived into this world in their perfect form. I tell people stop looking for some-one to blame, see the gifts these people offer not their deficits and embrace life!
So here we are in the present, where everything is rosy for people with disability. Well, at least they don’t expose us on hillsides anymore. We don’t get drowned or burnt at the stake. Our government has not legislated my termination or our i.e. the disabled’s extermination or mass sterilisation.
Things are not perfect. There is still ways to go and I don’t believe that Transhumanism is one of them. Trans-humanism robs us in large part of what it is to be human. To bite into a fresh, organic apple, to taste, to chew and swallow it, have our wonderful liver recognise all that it has to offer, then use what is needed immediately and to store the excess – not artificial supplements which the liver does recognise and it is eliminated as waste! Waste of money for a start!
From a CRAFT point of view I have had to remodel my home and work hard at the simplest of tasks like standing or washing a cup as well as ablutions etc. At present I am at the blue-print stage in, using these experiences in re-designing my home for a second time for myself from a disability access and liveability point of view and use my pre-accident experience as an interior designer. Construction is due to start mid- 2014.
Develop a meaningful life with joy, love and compassion, get hands on with life, get crafty even – get outside and enjoy the sunshine, fresh air and water. Enjoy and appreciate the simplicities of life and become fully human, warts and all, before we think about becoming trans-human.
I’m off my hobby horse now! With love and dedicated to our children’s children.
Curators note: Dear readers this article is done in large print for readability with visually impaired folks and is the font Meriel uses in her books (below) which also have spiral binding to allow each page to be folded flat back against the previous one for ease of independent reading.
Meriel Stanger This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Stanger, M. (2004). Permission to Shine - a journey of recovery and discovery.
Brisbane: Published by the Author. 200pgs.
Stanger, M. (2008). Shining On: the continuing journey of developing a meaningful
life. Brisbane, Meriel Stanger Publications. 100pgs.