3. THE DIFFERENT CONCEPTS OF HUMAN DIGNITY, ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES, AND THE
3.6. MORAL EVALUATIONS ON ETHICAL CONCEPTS OF HUMAN DIGNITY
3.6.1. SUBJECTIVE MORAL SENSE THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
In the process of evaluating our actions towards children with disabilities, we ought to be a little more careful and at the same time critical with our methodology or criteria. We are at present challenged with the various notions of human dignity as cited above that are in themselves highly contesting in their application to children with disabilities. Besides the contention, we are hereby faced with the situation of children with disabilities. The state of being born with disabilities is a global issue that confronts people of-course differently.
Many families globally have been confronted with the birth of a child with physical or mental disabilities.703 What varies is the degree of this state. Medical research indicated that the number of neonatal complications in child birthing has increased in recent years704. The number will rise dramatically over the coming years, because of global warming, the drastic change in the general pattern of atmospheric conditions and the type of food that people in general consume these days, which contain certain chemicals that are harmful to the proper development of the child in the mother’s womb.705
The state of being physically and mentally disabled was addressed at a global level.706 This gave rise to the development of certain structures that could accommodate the needs of children with disabilities. Particular nations adopted the universal structures in principle, but the implementation of such structures became a major issue in the various countries, particularly in Third World nations.707 There are several complexities involved that might have become major barriers to effect the universal norms on children with disabilities the same way.708 Certain ethical judgements that have been passed on infants born with complications might have been the result of socio-economic factors that weighed heavily on the poorest families other than the a mere disqualification of the humanity of the child with disabilities.
703 World Health Organization, (2011), Disability – A Global Picture, World Health Survey and the Global Burden, New York: UNICEF Report, Chapter two, 21-47. The report states that disability is a complex multidimensional experience, posing several challenges for measurement. Approaches to measuring disability vary across countries and influence the results. Operational measures of disabilities vary per the purpose and application of the data, the conception of disability, the aspects of disability examined – impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions, related health conditions, environmental factors – definitions, question design, reporting sources, data collection methods and expectations of functioning.
704 Annual Provincial Medical Report, (2010), The Province of KwaZulu-Natal. 18.
705 Ibid.
706 United Nations Children’s Fund Division of Policy and Practice, (2008), Mornitoring Child Disability in Developing Countries: Results from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, Wisconsin: School of Medicine and Health, 19-51.
707 Ibid.
708 Huber, W., (2006), Notion of ‘Begrundungsoffenheit’ and his concept of ‘relative universality’ which honours both the contextual and the universal character of human rights and human dignity, Gutersloh: Chr.
Kaiser/Gutersloher Verlagshaus, 269-320.
Society in general, particularly in the region in question, has created a classification of people categorising children with disabilities into a minority group, objectifying them as an unwanted minority.709 It is to such inclinations that many children with disabilities have been exposed to discriminatory attitudes by their parents, families and sometimes even government officials as cited above.710 Children with disabilities in this regard have been deemed as less important, unproductive and unwanted.711 Unfortunately, reality shows that, in all the government and private hospitals that deal with maternity cases, there are always a certain percentage of children who are born with complications like disabilities. Provincial, municipal, district and even faith-based health institutions have a certain percentage of children who are born with disabilities.712 Within the context of these medical statistics on prevalence of children disabilities, the government and all related stakeholders ought to take a film stand on the affirmation and realization of the plight of children with disabilities.
Though they are the minority but they still constitute the citizenly of the Republic of South Africa.713 What happens is that when these women are discharged from hospitals, post-natal care is almost absent.714 Most women are faced with the traumatic post-natal experience of having given birth to a child with disabilities.715 Failure to cope with this reality of a child with disabilities may lead most women to abandon, dump or kill the child. Sometimes the child might be starved to death.
The current research considers certain expositions of the life-stories of certain individuals to enrich the academic discussion on the lives of individuals living with children with disabilities. The current situation of children with disabilities in the region portrays a minority group of people who have been disadvantaged due to their status quo and side-lined
709 South African Minister of Basic Education, (2016), Section 27: Department Continues to Fail Children with Disabilities, in http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-12-06-section27-department-continues-to-fail- children-with-disabilities/WFTpbdJ97IU, Posted on December 06, 09:23 (South Africa). An event that had the potential to provide answers, raise awareness and begin a dialogue with government aimed at creating a plan to combat the tragedy for learners with disabilities in Umkhanyakude did not proceed as planned. Instead residents were forced to their own choir as none of the officials from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education who were invited to attend the assembly in Manguzi was present. This is a testimony of a minority group of people who could not be given the forum to address their plight.
710 Ibid. The report further stated that the current state of education for people with disabilities in Umkhanyakude undermines the transformative capacity of education for one of the most vulnerable groups in society. It is at odds with state policy, but disturbingly reflective of abhorrent statements made by education officials in passing. As one teacher at a special school reported saying, we do not expect teachers and engineers to come out of this school, by one of the officials.
711 Ibid.
712 Department of Social Development/ Department of Women, Children, and People with Disabilities, (2012), Children with Disabilities in South Africa: A Situation Analysis 2001-2011, UNICEF/Rebecca Hearfield Publishers, 26-50.
713 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), Chapter Nos. 9,10,12 and 28.
714 Hoque, M., Hoque, E. and Kader, S.B., (2008), Audit of Antenatal Care in a Rural District of KZN, South Africa, in a Journal, South African Family Practice, Durban: Taylor and Francis Group, Medpharm, 1-6.
715 Ibid.
by society.716 The life stories of Ruth Morgan provided a vivid exposé of reality and opened up a new window on the life experiences of people living with physical and mental problems.717 The research makes reference to what we could call a ‘Subjective Moral Sense Theory’718, which takes into account the fact that an individual person or a certain group of people hold the same opinion as the last court of appeal in matters of morality.719 Moral judgement is arrived at by considering that an act is good if it evokes a favourable reaction from an individual’s sense of perception.720 Further, this would imply that an act is regarded as bad if the individual does not profit from it.721 According to this assessment, we could affirm that such kind of looking at reality could be based on subjective moral theory and personal prejudice. For instance, the life stories of Morgan may give us a picture of an assessment based on a subjective moral sense theory.722 Morgan narrated this harrowing thought: “Something went wrong with the world when God fell asleep. Why did God allow these things to happen?”723 In this little exposition, Morgan was questioning the world view of South African society in the face of the child with disabilities. She discussed the fact that, despite the advent of the democratic South African Constitution that prohibits discrimination based on ‘disability status’, she is not even aware of the existence of any changes that will improve the quality of life for children with disabilities in South Africa. 724 The narration above may signify that there may be many people who seem not to be aware of the reality reflected by Morgan. We still recognize the current situation of children with disabilities and the worst part of it is the fact that children are still being abandoned, dumped in inhuman
716 South African Minister of Basic Education, (2016), Section 27: Department Continues to Fail Children with Disabilities, in http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-12-06-section27-department-continues-to-fail- children-with-disabilities/WFTpbdJ97IU, Posted on December 06, 09:23 (South Africa). An event that had the potential to provide answers, raise awareness and begin a dialogue with government aimed at creating a plan to combat the tragedy for learners with disabilities in Umkhanyakude did not proceed as planned. Instead residents were forced to their own choir as none of the officials from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education who were invited to attend the assembly in Manguzi was present. This is a testimony of a minority group of people who could not be given the forum to address their plight.
717 Priestley, M., (Ed), (2001), Disability and the Life-Course: Global Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 89.
718 Zalta, E., (Ed), (2016), Standard Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, An On-line Dictionary, Centre for the Study of Language, and Information, in http://www.plato.stanford.edu, Posted on December 17, 11:05 GMT.
Subjective Moral Theory is in this case used to mean an action guiding theory whereby an individual person aims at achieving certain goals intended. It also must do with subjective preferences of an individual disregarding external factors.
719 Thomas, J., and Higgins, S.J., (Eds), (1967), Ethical Theories in Conflict, Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 34-35.
720 Ibid.
721 Ibid.
722 Morgan, R., (2001), Disability and Identity in South Africa: Social Change and Self-Empowerment, in Priestley, M., (Ed), Disability and the Life-Course: Global Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 92.
723 Ibid.
724 Ibid.
conditions, or secretly killed.725 Despite these life experiences and evidence on the plight of children with disabilities, it seems as if there are no alarm bells to question the reality of the missing children and why they are missing. People live as if nothing is happened concerning the plight of children with disabilities. Let us consider this life-story:
“My father was disputing paternity (he laughs) so when they went there. In our tradition, you send the old mothers to go and eh check the child, inspect the child, and make sure that the child (is yours) to look for signs, the family signs. So, when they got there, my father was angry: No! I can’t get an albino something like that. So, when they got there, they checked under the ears and everything. This is our child. So, we are satisfied – as the testimony went. Two days later, it was reported that the child is dead – saying you know what, he was born a monkey and it was painful to have a child like that.”726
This might be clear testimony of how some people in society reason. Most often, people are caught up within the parameters of their own subjective moral sense theories, in which everything is done about their own feelings, interests, and choices. When we are dealing with life and death issues, particularly judgements related to our actions towards children with disabilities, subjective moral sense theories will remain questionable. We would consider them as detrimental to those who have no power of self-defence. Some families may choose to accept the child, or not, and their choices whichever could be, may be considered and attributed to personal, family and social interests and inclinations. Using the same argument, some families, parents, mothers, and other related groups of people have courageously taken critical decisions on their children who are born with acute physical and mental disabilities. Personal sentiments of that kind have resulted in the abandonment, dumping, or killing of children with disabilities. Situations of this nature influences parents to daringly make such decisions as means of relieving themselves of their parental responsibilities that come with such consequences in the family. Some of the pressing and moral questions are: whose pleasure is paramount in such cases, namely: one’s own pleasure, society’s pleasure, or that of a child with disabilities? Moved by pure subjective moral sense theories, we may be inclined to differ in approach in dealing with issues related to children with disabilities as discussed in this exposition so far. Parental decisions of that nature may be lacking other elements that are of vital importance for the procurement of an objective judgement over anybody.
725 The first chapter highlighted several instances of children with disabilities being abandoned, dumped, and killed. We are now making use of such cases to establish an argument that could be used as a claim for the plight of children with disabilities in the region.
726Ibid.
Considering the above discussion on the methodology of taking decisions in the face of children with disabilities, the research acknowledged a certain degree of retrogressive subjectivism by which some people perceive reality, take decisions without considering the demerits of their actions. We need to acknowledge the objective moral criteria that transcend all personal perceptions, assumptions, and affirmations. This is what is lacking in society today. We are faced with the human malaise of children with disabilities being abandoned, dumped, and killed, in many parts of the region. Such unethical judgements towards children with disabilities are deemed as signs of our moral decadence as a society. The current inhuman situations of this nature could be directly attributed to the persistence of our social and personal prejudice that people have towards children with disabilities. This is one of the critical situations in the region that the current research has found to be contributing to the retrogression of development in the context of the current situation of children with disabilities.
3.7. CONJUGATION OF THE MORAL/ETHICAL JUDGEMENTS AND THE PROCESS