Glee Bengel and her 24-year-old daughter April were found dead of shotgun wounds at their Lansing-area home this week, and police say they suspect the mother killed her daughter and then herself. Glee Bengel left a note saying that her colon cancer had returned and she feared that April would not be cared for in the event of her death.

A news report described April as a “delightful” young woman who operated the cash register in a local training program and was working on living independently. Links here and here. John Schneider, writing in the Lansing State Journal, extends his sympathy to the mother, writing that murder-suicide in such a case is not unprecedented. His words:

… I don’t know what other alternatives Glee Bengel had - for herself, or her daughter. But the world, minus the sheltering arms of a loving parent, can be a harsh place for people who depend completely on the selflessness and forbearance of other human beings. That’s why we sometimes read about parents who just aren’t willing to send their children to that place.

Sigh. Am I reading what I think I’m reading? The columnist finds it understandable for this mother to kill her daughter because her daughter had Down syndrome? That this case is a tragedy is not in question. But the tragedy was not that the daughter had a disability. (In fact, it sounds as though she was pretty capable.) The tragedy here was that her mother was not willing or able to seek the help that her daughter may have needed to maintain a secure and satisfying adult life in her mother’s absence.

My hope, for this columnist and for the rest of us, would be that a case like this would provide an opportunity to examine the services that are available for families of people with disabilities, and to make reasoned recommendations about what improvements are needed. Instead, we find a writer who implicitly excuses this young woman’s killing because he sees death (by shotgun blast) as preferable to a life in which she must depend on people other than her mother.

Attitudes like the ones expressed here serve only to extend unwarranted public stigma against people with disabilities, and to excuse society of the responsibility of caring for its more vulnerable members. If we aren’t providing adequate support for individuals and their families, then let’s be more forceful in advocating for needed changes in the memory of April Bengel. She deserves nothing less.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, commentary, ethics, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post