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Whose lives count as fully human? The answer matters for everyone,
disabled or not. The ancient Greek ideal linked physical wholeness
to moral wholeness - the virtuous citizen was "beautiful and good."
It's an ideal that has all too often turned deadly, casting those
who do not measure up as less than human. In the pre-Christian era,
infants with disabilities were left on the rocks; in modern times,
they have been targeted by eugenics. Much has changed, thanks to
the tenacious advocacy of the disability rights movement.
Yesteryear's hellish institutions have given way to customized
educational programs and assisted living centers. Public spaces
have been reconfigured to improve access. Therapies and medical
technology have advanced rapidly in sophistication and
effectiveness. Protections for people with disabilities have been
enshrined in many countries' antidiscrimination laws. But these
victories, impressive as they are, mask other realities that
collide awkwardly with society's avowals of equality. Why are
parents choosing to abort a baby likely to have a disability? Why
does Belgian law allow for euthanasia in cases of disability, even
absent a terminal diagnosis or physical pain? Why, when ventilators
were in short supply during the first Covid wave, did some states
list disability as a reason to deny care? On this theme: - Heonju
Lee tells how his son with Down syndrome saved another child's
life. - Molly McCully Brown and Victoria Reynolds Farmer recount
their personal experiences with disability. - Amy Julia Becker says
meritocracies fail because they value the wrong things. - Maureen
Swinger asks six mothers around the world about raising a child
with disabilities. - Joe Keiderling documents the unfinished
struggle for disability rights. - Isaac T. Soon wonders if Saint
Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was a disability. - Leah Libresco
Sargeant reviews What Can a Body Do? and Making Disability Modern.
- Sarah C. Williams says testing for fetal abnormalities is not a
neutral practice. Also in the issue: - Ross Douthat is brought low
by intractable Lyme disease. - Edwidge Danticat flees an active
shooter in a packed mall. - Eugene Vodolazkin finds comic relief at
funerals, including his own father's. - Kelsey Osgood discovers
that being an Orthodox Jew is strange, even in Brooklyn. -
Christian Wiman pens three new poems. - Susannah Black profiles
Flannery O'Conner. - Our writers review Eyal Press's Dirty Work,
Steve Coll's Directorate S, and Millennial Nuns by the Daughters of
Saint Paul. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture
for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face.
Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book
reviews, and art.
She knew they would only have a few fleeting months together, but
in that time Sarah's unborn daughter would transform her
understanding of beauty, worth, and the gift of life. Happily
married and teaching history at the University of Oxford, Sarah
Williams had credentials, success, and knowledge. It took someone
who would never have any of these things to teach her what it means
to be human. This extraordinary true story begins with the welcome
news of a new member of the Williams family. Sarah's husband, Paul,
and their two young daughters share her excitement. But the
happiness is short-lived, as a hospital scan reveals a lethal
skeletal dysplasia. Birth will be fatal. Sarah and Paul decide to
carry the baby to term, a decision that shocks medical staff and
Sarah's professional colleagues. Sarah and Paul find themselves
having to defend their child's dignity and worth against
incomprehension and at times open hostility. They name their
daughter, Cerian, Welsh for "loved one." Sarah writes, "Cerian is
not a strong religious principle or a rule that compels me to make
hard and fast ethical decisions. She is a beautiful person who is
teaching me to love the vulnerable, treasure the unlovely, and face
fear with dignity and hope." In this candid and vulnerable account,
Sarah brings the reader along with her on the journey towards
Cerian's birthday and her deathday. It's rare enough to find a
writer who can share such a heart-stretching personal experience
without sounding sappy, but here is one who at the same time has
the ability to articulate the broader cultural issues raised by
Cerian's story. In a society striving for perfection, where worth
is earned, identity is constructed, children are a choice, normal
is beautiful, and deformity is repulsive, Cerian's short life
raises vital questions about what we value and where we are headed
as a culture. Perfectly Human was first published in the United
Kingdom as The Shaming of the Strong. This edition includes a new
afterword by the author.
What is a family and what is it good for? Story 1: Families are in
crisis, and the cause is moral breakdown. We urgently need a deep
renewal of our family culture, supported by public policies that
strengthen traditional marriage and encourage childbearing. Story
2: Families are in crisis, and the cause is capitalism. We need
structural changes in society so that all families can flourish:
parental leave, guaranteed healthcare, flexible work hours for
parents, restorative justice. What if both these stories are true?
This issue of Plough reflects on what a family is and what it is
for, so that the transformations needed to solve the crisis of the
family start from a firm basis, not a nostalgic ideal or
progressive theorizing. As always, we take as a starting point the
teachings of Jesus. It turns out his idea of family values might
not be what people think. He calls us to extend our natural love
for our biological family to a vast new throng of siblings - a
family of many ethnicities and cultures that includes the widowed,
the unmarried, the outsider, and the stranger. In this issue: -
Ross Douthat asks what is stopping people from having the one more
child they desire. - Edwidge Danticat says families are not
nuclear. - Gina Dalfonzo reveals what singles know best about the
church as family. - Norann Voll remembers a Jewish woman who
escaped the Holocaust and married a German. - W. Bradford Wilcox
and Alysse ElHage report on how the Covid pandemic has impacted the
family. - Noah Van Niel asks whether masculinity is OK anymore. -
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn reflects the burden of family
history, celibacy, and monument toppling. - Sarah C. Williams
pinpoints the source of feminist pioneer Josephine Butler's daring.
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks begins the story of marriage 385 million
years ago in a lake in Scotland. - Zito Madu recalls how his
father's amazing storytelling saved the past from oblivion. You'll
also find: - M. M. Townsend on what Louisa May Alcott and Simone de
Beauvoir had in common - A special announcement about Plough's new
poetry contest: the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award - A reading from
G. K. Chesterton - Two new poems by Rachel Hadas - Reviews of Eric
Edstrom's Un-American, Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law's Prison by
Any Other Name, Brian Doyle's One Long River of Song, and Martin
Caparros's Hunger Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and
culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue
brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and
art to help you put Jesus' message into practice and find common
cause with others.
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