Disability in practice : attitudes, policies, and relationships /

Philosophers Adam Cureton (Univ. of Tennessee) and Thomas Hill (emer., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) provide a fascinating exploration of Kant's categorical imperative as it applies to the experience of disability in its many configurations. Elegantly describing the gentle beauty of kindness and moral obligation, the collection is a must read. Among the topics discussed are gratitude as a willingness to learn or to appreciate how disability creates another perspective on being human in the world; noticing and ignoring, and how both work as a social contract; how love and respect can be in tension with each other; staring at people with disabilities, and the power of staring to deny a person's humanity or to transform; and respect for people with intellectual disabilities. Respect is also explored as a tool to deal with the difficult aspects of reproductive choice, and as a tool to grasp the rejection of a possible cure of disabilities by people who have them. The thorny problem of how to deal with the newly disabled rejecting treatment or the right to die is also part of respect extended to such persons. One essay urges a theory of basic needs rather than basic capabilities for the severely disabled, and another examines obligations to cognitively impaired individuals. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Patricia A. Murphy, emerita, University of Toledo