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1:32pm August 29, 2014

dendriforming:

I read a book about the history of genetic counselling recently.

I’ve since returned it to the library, so I don’t have the exact quote. But there was a passage about how a woman had decided to become a genetic counsellor. She had looked at old medical textbooks, and seen the photos of disabled children posed and on display. She saw the arms holding them in place. She was struck with curiosity about who those arms belonged to (she assumed they were the mother), and what that person’s experiences were. She wanted to help them.

Was she curious about the experiences of the children pictured in the foreground? Did she even acknowledge they had a perspective?

If she did, she didn’t think it was important enough to mention in her interview with the author. Or the author didn’t think it was important enough to warrant inclusion in the book.

I always freak out when I see people who look like me, in medical textbooks, eyes blacked out sometimes, held like that, it scares me, a lot.