Disability and difference: balancing social and physical constructions: Figure 1:

Abstract

Abstract

Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)—Is the Amputation of Healthy Limbs Ethically Justified?

“…Bridy uses the obsolete term apotemnophile (amputation lovers) of Money et al (1977), which describes the amputation desire as a paraphilia. Bridy (2004) rejects the hypothesis that this desire is irrational because it purposes a "disability"; for that, she refers to the social difference model of disability (Koch 2001).…”

Risks of Stigmatisation Resulting from Assistive Technologies for Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Disability is often framed by one of two models-the social and the medical model. The medical model of disability views disability "disability as a negative variation from the physical norm that necessarily disadvantages the physically distinct subject's life and life quality" [14], whilst the social model focuses on socially constructed barriers and oppressive social norms that turn impairments into disability [15] and rejects "any idea of normality, which is regarded as an ideological construction" [16]. Disability studies, as a distinct field, has emerged in recent decades [17], which, although varied and interdisciplinary is united by a "rejection of any model of disability that locates (the problem of) disability within the person" [17].…”

“…Disability studies, as a distinct field, has emerged in recent decades [17], which, although varied and interdisciplinary is united by a "rejection of any model of disability that locates (the problem of) disability within the person" [17]. Disability is viewed (in the main) "as a social issue: (the problem of) disability is firmly positioned in terms of barriers in the social world, not 'problems' within the individual" [14]. The strong social model has been challenged as well, with scholars such as Tom Shakespeare arguing that "people are disabled by society and by their bodies and minds" [18].…”

How Should Clinicians Counsel a Woman with a Strong Family History of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease about Her Pregnancy?

“…One safeguard against this implicit directedness might involve including insights from the lived experiences of persons with the disease. As disease is not strictly physiological but unfolds within a social context, genetic counseling should provide information about both the clinical and social dimensions of living with disease [12][13][14]. Toward that end, the genetic counselor should discuss with Mrs. Castle that both she and her child, if affected, could live as many as 64 asymptomatic years before the onset of EOAD symptoms, and that the experience of dementia, like that of other conditions, does not ipso facto preclude a rich and meaningful human existence [15].…”