Disabled used as guinea pigs

For instance the discovery of new medicines to cure and prevent some diseases was and will always be applauded by all. Ideal civilisation was bound to bring equalisation of opportunities to all people. In fact civilisation is supposed to be apolitical, non religious, non-denominational non-racial and non-discriminatory at all times.

However, how many of us ever thought that some of these medical discoveries were achieved at the huge expense of the abuse of disabled persons.

In Article 12 of The United Nations Standard Rules of Equalisation of opportunities for disabled people say: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, no to attacks upon his honour and reputation.

Everyone has the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. However, some people may be shocked to hear that in Ireland, a country in Europe, one hundred people with severe intellectual impairments in an institution were to be used as guinea pigs in a pharmaceutical trial requiring monthly injections without their permission or understanding. (Ref: UN Disclosure document page 12).

In a normal situation, where both the disabled and non disabled people are treated equally, perpetrators of such a crime would have been legally forced to pay huge funds as compensation to the innocent victims in addition to being convicted for crimes against humanity.

Again in this case, as is always the rule, whenever a disabled person is involved as a victim, we are not told the nature of the punishment (or the trophy) that was duly given to those individuals in Ireland.

The above is documented because it was discovered by those who wanted to expose such crimes. The question is how many crimes of this nature are taking place or being swept under the carpet?

Few years ago there were complaints from many members of Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPOs) in Zimbabwe that disabled girls were being sterilised without their consent. Various methods were used in fulfilment of this goal.

It was alleged then that some parents of disabled children made sure that their daughters had their uterus surgical removed so as to prevent them from having children in future. Ironically, parents of disabled daughters felt that they were doing a natural parental favour to their off springs. It was believed by some of the parents that it would be a burden in future, for a disabled woman to endure the pain associated with pregnancy and giving birth. And in addition to that, there was also the question of who would look after the baby because it could not be imagined that a disabled woman could get married.

Even today in Zimbabwe, there some people who think that disabled persons, women in particular, are sexual objects. As we start to draft a new constitution let us deeply examine ourselves as a nation with regards to the above issues.