Cerrie Burnell was born with one arm

From Sky News, [UK] Daily Mail and the [UK] Evening Standard:

The BBC has received nine official complaints from parents that Cerrie Burnell, a new co-host on the popular children’s television channel CBeebies, is scaring their children, according to a network spokesman.

Burnell, who was born with one arm, previously worked as an actor on television and in the theater.

A spokesman for CBeebies defended Burnell. “We think that in time all mums and dads and children will love her as much as we do, ” said Michael Carrington.

Burnell said she was disappointed by the criticism but welcomed the discussion.

“It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk disability with their children,” she said. “It just goes to show how important it is to have positive disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general.”

(more…)

From The Australian, ABC News Australia, Sydney Morning Herald:

“Be My Brother,” a movie starring a man with Down syndrome, got the top prize at Australia’s Tropfest festival on Sunday, and star Gerard O’Dwyer was named best actor. The festival is the world’s largest celebration of short films. (Editor’s note: News reports listed the actor as O’Dwyer, but the Tropfest website listed his name as Gerard O’Duyes.)

The film, directed by 20-year-old Genevieve Clay, is is the tale of a young man with Down syndrome who meets a woman at a bus stop. He faces hurdles with optimism, even in the face of prejudice and misunderstanding. (Video here.)

Clay described her lead actor, 24, as “incredible” and said he was the inspiration for the film. “(The film) is saying that you shouldn’t have prejudices — everybody has something to offer,” she said. “My lead actor demonstrates that.”

Clay won a prize package worth $100,000, including a trip to LA to meet with film executives. O’Dwyer won a $3,000 cash prize that was donated by Nicole Kidman.

(Photo of O’Dwyer and Clay from ABC News Australia)

From the Dallas Morning News:

A battle is shaping up in Texas over a bill that calls for drastically downsizing the state’s system of institutions that house people with disabilities. The measure would relocate thousands of institutional residents to community group homes or independent living.

The bill, which was filed today, faces strong and emotional opposition. Lawmakers who have institutions in their districts and parents of people who live in the institutions say closing the “state schools” would be disastrous for residents.

(more…)

From BBC, UK Times, People Magazine, Hindustan Times:

The story of an Indian girl whose cleft lip was repaired through surgery has won the Academy Award for best short documentary.

Directed by Megan Mylan, the film follows Pinki’s transformation from an introverted social outcast to an outgoing local celebrity after an operation funded by The Smile Train, an international charity organization that provides free surgery to children with cleft lips and palates.

Pinki, who attended the awards ceremony with her father and her surgeon, told People magazine that she had been shunned by children and townspeople in her rural village in India. Pinki’s birth had been a humiliation on her family, and villagers said her cleft lip was evidence of a curse.

Her father, Rajendra Sonkar, said he used to think it would have been better if his daughter had not been born. Now he hopes Pinki will grow up to be a flight attendant.

(Pinki with surgeon Subodh Kumar Singh, her father, and director Megan Mylan, AP photo from UK Times)

From the [Newark, NJ] Star-Ledger:

Writer/filmmaker Simi Linton was joined by dozens of activists near the Kodak Theatre red carpet in Los Angeles Sunday to protest the presentation of a humanitarian award to Jerry Lewis at the Academy Award ceremony.

Carrying signs carrying slogans like “Respect Not Pity,” and “Don’t Reward Bigotry,” they made the case that Lewis has done more harm than good as an advocate for people with disabilities.

“Jerry Lewis says everyone needs to raise money for these pitiable people,” explained Linton, 61, who was injured in a car accident 36 years ago. She is author of a memoir, “My Body Politic.” “We aren’t pitiable people. We are strong and resourceful and the most powerful people in the world.”

… “What we want is access and opportunity,” said Lawrence Carter-Long, 41, of New York, a former poster child for United Cerebral Palsy.

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From the Hollywood Reporter:

Comedy film icon Jerry Lewis was greeted with a standing ovation when he took the Kodak Theatre stage to accept a special Oscar for his longtime charitable endeavors.

… The Academy’s selection of Lewis to receive this year’s humanitarian award has drawn criticism. Some cited his use of the slur “fag” on his 2007 telethon, and during an interview in October on Australian TV, he referred to cricket as “a fag game.” Some in the disabled community also objected to the honor going to Lewis, claiming that he has perpetuated negative stereotypes involving people with disabilities.

Academy exec director Bruce Davis defended the Academy’s decision against such Internet-based protests, saying Lewis “has shouldered the back-breaking job of organizing, and then leading, an unparalleled three-day fundraising effort on behalf of muscular dystrophy sufferers.”

In an early edition of the New York Times, (reprinted in the Rochester, MN, Post-Bulletin):

Jerry Lewis, the 82-year-old comedian who has devoted much of his time to raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, was scheduled to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

But even that was not without complications. As of Sunday morning, advocates for people with disabilities were promising a demonstration in the vicinity of the Kodak Theater to protest the award as standing for an approach that tended to pity more than respect such people.

See also coverage in the Los Angeles Times.

From the Associated Press:

In an apparent reference to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that any type of discrimination based on genetics is an “attack against all of humanity.”

The remarks came during an audience with participants at a Vatican conference on “New Frontiers of Genetics and the Risk of Eugenics.”

While praising scientific progress that permits enhanced treatment for disease, the pope said medical advances have been accompanied by “worrisome displays” of discrimination that favor “efficiency, perfection and physical beauty at the expense of other forms of existence that are deemed unworthy.”

In PGD, embryos can be tested for genetic conditions like Down syndrome, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis before implantation in the uterus.