Religion & Law

If you noticed a flurry of news stories about autism yesterday, it's because it was World Autism Awareness Day.  I didn't know about it ahead of time, but just coincidentally the night before I had gone to see a truly phenomenal Australian movie about a family that includes an autistic teenager, The Black Balloon.  I highly recommend it, as a unflinchingly honest look (despite the too-cutesy ending) at the very real heartbreak (and the very real humor) involved in loving a person with autism.  The movie focuses on the impact on the brother of the autistic son, who is an "average" 16-year old kid desparately wishing his brother would "get better."  I saw it with my own 16-year old son, who does more than his fair share of dealing with the more difficult autism-related complications of growing up with his little brother (who has both Down Syndrome and a form of autism).  We both cried during the movie -- both with tears of laughter at times, because we recognized ourselves in some scenes -- and me (but NOT my 16-year old son, I stress) because I cry very easily at sad or sappy scenes in movies.

Although I'm as guilty of stressing the joys and rewards of raising a child with a disability as anyone, I do think it's important to be honest about the suffering and the costs sometimes involved.  It's not all noble, and it doesn't always turn out allright, despite the best of intentions.  If you're not too depressed by Rob's recent post, here's another recent brutally honest essay about raising a son with autism: The Monster Inside my Son, by Ann Bauer.  

What does this have to do with Catholic legal theory?  I think that disabilty rights theorists have to think more about and address more directly the reality of suffering, a topic that Catholic theology might have a lot to say about.  I also think that an honest confrontation with the difficulties involved in life with disabilities is important to many social policies decisions affecting people with disabilities and those who love and support them.