Scott Carney (Mother Jones magazine): Inside India’s Rent-a-Womb Business
Despite the growth in services, surrogacy is not officially regulated in India. There are no binding legal standards for treatment of surrogates, nor has any state or national authority been empowered to police the industry. While clinics have a financial incentive to ensure the health of the fetus, there’s nothing to prevent them from cutting costs by scrimping on surrogate pay and follow-up care, or to ensure they behave responsibly when something goes wrong.
Benedict Carey (New York Times): Seeking Emotional Clues Without Facial Cues
Ms. Bogart has Moebius syndrome, a rare congenital condition named for a 19th-century neurologist that causes facial paralysis. When the people she helped made a sad expression, she continued, “I wasn’t able to return it. I tried to do so with words and tone of voice, but it was no use. Stripped of the facial expression, the emotion just dies there, unshared. It just dies.”
Goldfish at Diary of a Goldfish: Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD) Will be on May 1st, 2010
Blogging Against Disablism day will be on Saturday, 1st May. This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people will blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination. In this way, we hope to raise awareness of inequality, promote equality and celebrate the progress we’ve made. [Note: Click the link for info on how you can participate in BADD 2010!]
Max Harrold (Montreal Gazette): Filmmaker in wheelchair says red-carpet rejection inspired film
[Filmmaker Sean Marckos] has it all on video: He and a colleague, both in tuxedos and with their tickets in hand, being hustled out of the famous Palais des festivals in Cannes in 2008 and 2009. They were told they could enter only through a rear entrance, away from paparazzi. “They didn’t want me next to the beautiful people like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,” said Marckos, 31, who has muscular dystrophy.
National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR): Greene vs. County of Sonoma et al.
One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.
Off topic, but the inclusion of one from Mother Jones prompts me to ask: does anyone know where to get hold of it in London (England)? Until last year you could get it readily in Borders, but they have all closed and no other book/magazine shop or newsagent seems to stock US political magazines like Ms and MJ. In fact, I think some shops stopped after Borders started. I know I could subscribe but I didn’t buy every issue and can’t afford to.
Does anyone know of any other way to contact the goldfish other than the comment form? I want to participate in BADD, but the audio CAPTCHA doesn’t work on my connection.
Astrid, I know she is on Twitter as The Goldfish.
@Astrid: I also assume you could e-mail her at the e-mail address listed in that blog post (diaryofagoldfish at googlemail dot com).
I also left a comment pointing out the accessibility issues with the CAPTCHA, incidentally. (It’s impossible for a deaf-blind person to post, too!)