good day at office and out

Thursday 07/16/09

Good day at work today. Met with Lieven and Pierre to articulate some of the thinking I have been doing and got good feedback. Have set meeting with staff at Eur. Disabilities Forum tomorrow and sent out some of the materials I have been working on. Reading more on practices in the US- probably not too consistent with the Doe amendments in CAPTA.

Here is how I set out current ideas:

1. that medical advice that gives parents an inaccurate negative "quality of life" prognosis concerning neonate creates a context for negative action, including effectively, euthanasia, based on stereotypes about disabled people and violate the child's rights under disability rights laws; and
2. that medical personnel should have obligation under these laws to make anticipatory accommodations by having a plan for giving comprehensive and accurate information concerning the range of life outcomes for disabled new borns.

Shared wild rice salad with staff – it went over well. Went out for a walk at lunch with Pierre and Lieven and saw and art show by P's friend, Willo Gonnissen. Some good stuff, though not much is selling.

It is the last day for Adrianna, the volunteer from Venezuala so we had a tart for snack and went out for beers at the end of the day. A had been an AFS student in Netherlands, so has good Dutch language – she wants a journalism job in V when she returns. We all (P, L, A, and Renee, who was in from Netherlands for the day) went to a bar for beers – P unhappy that the waiter refused to speak “his country's language” - Dutch. After others left, L and I went back to IF neighborhood and had another beer at the famous bar, La Fleur en Papier Dore – the hangout for Magritte and surrealists - now historically designated. A cool place to hang out with lots of art and scrawls and memorabilia on the walls.