Religion & Law

"The Many Shapes of Personhood"

By Elizabeth Schiltz

I rarely let myself click on YouTube videos, because the temptation to spend hours and hours on detours through that pit of inane, but utterly captivating, amusements is too great.  But here's one you should NOT miss.  I'm even presenting it in a format, though an article from Wired.com linked here, that doesn't directly expose you to all the browsing temptations of YouTube.

The article features Amanda Baggs, a young woman with autism.  Her video first shows a few minutes of her interactions with her environment, and then provides a "translation" of her interactions, though the aid of an augmentative communications devices that lets her type (which she does at 120 words a minute) and then speaks the typed words for her.  Her commentary on how "we" judge intelligence and personhood is haunting.  Her closing words are:  "Only when the many shapes of personhood are recognized will justice and human rights be possible."

Full post as published by Mirror of Justice on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).