Writing in The Australian about the case of Bernhard Moeller, Jan Gothard and Charlie Fox say disability has become the “new unmentionable”  in Australian immigration policy, replacing race as the excluded category no one talked about. Australia barred non-whites from immigration until about forty years ago.

Gothard and Fox trace the history of Australian law that permits the exclusion of “any idiot or insane person” and “any person likely to become a charge upon the public.” They say exclusion of people with disabilities is explicitly permitted in Australia because immigration policy is not covered by the nation’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), as spelled out in Clause 52. An excerpt:

The perception that people with disability can be nothing more than a cost or a burden has been out of date in Australia for at least the past 30 years and explicitly devalues all people in Australia living with disabilities.

Families with a child with a disability … should not be put in the position of having to fight their way through the Migration Review Tribunal before being accorded the right to bring their skills and qualifications into Australia. The family of Tracey Robinson, who finally received ministerial approval for migration last week, had waited more than six years for a resolution and over that period had to endure an appeal to the tribunal as well as to the Federal Court. Immigration Minister Evans should be called on urgently to exercise his discretion and offer closure to the many other families in waiting. But above all, the DDA should be changed and its clause 52, like the White Australia policy before it, should be consigned to the dustbin of history. It’s time to throw aside legislation cast in century-old attitudes, and for the Rudd Government to do for disability what the Whitlam government did for race.

Gothard and Fox are parents, historians and members of Down Syndrome Western Australia.

From The Australian:

Perth midwife Tracey Robinson and her husband, Paul, have won a six-year battle against the Immigration Department to stay in Australia with their Down syndrome son.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has foreshadowed reform of the visa process for families with disabled children after using his discretion this week to grant the Robinsons permanent residency.

Robinson’s struggle came to light after the Australian government last month denied permanent residency to German doctor Bernhard Moeller because his son Lukas has Down syndrome.

See also: Child health expert opposes refusal of visas over Down syndrome — The Australian:

Child expert Fiona Stanley, 2003 Australian of the Year, says the permanent residency denials of the families of children with Down syndrome is “shameful” and “discriminatory.” Stanley is a professor in the School of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

(more…)

From the Australian, The Sunday Times/Perth Now, The Age:

A second case has emerged of a medical worker being refused permanent residency in Australia because the government concluded that her child with Down syndrome posed a significant cost to the community. Down Syndrome Western Australia, a support group, termed the cases “the tip of the iceberg.”

Dr. Jan Gothard of DSWA said the case involved a British midwife at Joondalup Hospital in Perth who declined to let her name be used for fear of retribution. Outraged supporters said the woman had been recruited by the government as part of an effort to address an acute shortage of midwives.

Her case follows that of German Doctor Bernhard Moeller, who was denied residency for the same reason. Dr. Moeller had been recruited in an effort to reduce a shortage of doctors.

Dr. Gothard said it was standard practice for families of children with Down syndrome to be rejected for residency in Australia. The group called the practice  “discriminatory and disgraceful.”

The unnamed midwife is described by fellow staff as “one of the hospital’s best.” She has battled with the government since 2002.

See earlier posts here, here, and here.

Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Renate Lindeman says it’s time to take the issue of prenatal screening out of the abortion debate once and for all. Lindeman’s two daughters have Down syndrome. She says pregnant women are not receiving unbiased, balanced and complete information about Down syndrome, and so are not making fully informed choices.

Lindeman would like to see complete information made available before couples are even asked whether they wish to screen. An excerpt:

Singling out a condition by offering routine screening and enabling selective abortion sends a strong value judgment about potential quality of life. Trying to predict the future based solely on their genes opens the door to discrimination, anxiety, fears and underestimating social and environmental factors in maintaining health. Progress that was made over many generations, in terms of inclusion and equal rights, could be lost in less than one.

… At the end of the day, when I look at my daughters, April and Hazel, both living with Down syndrome, I don’t see the genetically flawed children that prenatal screening is trying to eliminate. I see kind-hearted, happy children who are giants in loving and living, who enrich our human genetic diversity and who teach me and everyone they meet what it is to truly feel.

See related article.

Lindeman is a spokesperson for “Down Syndrome Belongs” of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

From the Australian, AP/Washington Post,  AP/CNN, the Age of Australia and elsewhere:

Australia’s government is under pressure from all sides to overturn a decision denying German doctor Bernhard Moeller permanent residency because his son Lukas has Down syndrome. Moeller is the only medical specialist in his rural community, and came to Australia in response to government pleas to fill a doctor shortage.

Victorian Premier John Brumby criticized the decision as “stupid” and “discriminatory. ” He said the authorities should reverse the decision as soon as possible because Dr. Moeller was making a valuable contribution to the region, and because Lukas should be treated like any other child.

In rejecting Dr. Moeller’s application for permanent residency, the Immigration Department said the potential cost to the taxpayer of Lukas’s condition was too great.

Jan Gothard, a lecturer at Murdoch University who advises families with disabled children on migrating to Australia, said rejections are common.

(more…)

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Melbourne Herald Sun, and the Associated Press:

A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia says he plans to fight a government decision to exclude him because his 13-year-old son has Down syndrome.

Dr. Bernhard Moeller is the only internal medicine specialist in Horsham, a rural community of 20,000 people in the state of Victoria, and works as the only full-time physician at the local hospital. He came to the town two years ago in response to a government request for help with a rural doctor shortage.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship wrote to Dr. Moeller that he could not be granted permanent residency because his son “did not meet the health requirement.” A copy of the decision said care for Lukas was “likely to result in significant costs to the Australian community in health care and community services”.

An immigration department spokesman said officials were legally bound to reject an application if a medical officer judged that the applicant posed a significant cost burden. The family plans an appeal.

(more…)

From Associated Press on CBS, Chronicle of Higher Education:

The House passed and sent to the White House Wednesday legislation aimed at assuring that the protections of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act are maintained.

President Bush said through a spokeswoman that he “looks forward” to signing the measure.

The bill had been approved last week in the Senate. It is intended to reverse judicial rulings that have narrowed the broad scope of protection of the ADA, and represents a compromise between disability rights groups and business interests.

See previous post here.

UPDATE: Congress passes bill with protections for disabled, by Robert Pear in the New York Times. An excerpt:

Bills passed with overwhelming support are often insignificant or noncontroversial, but that was not true for this bill. “This is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation of our time,” said Representative Jim Langevin, Democrat of Rhode Island, who uses a wheelchair.