Hatch has Down Syndrome, and she wants to live independently. The court determined that she wasn’t able to live on her own, on the basis of ‘fitness’ assessments from third parties, but it also determined something else: while it felt she needed a guardian, it acknowledged that she had the right to choose that guardian. In other words, while the government could impose its will on a disabled person, she was still allowed some autonomy, which is a huge step forward. And Hatch already knew who she wanted as a guardian: a couple who employed her and had already offered to have her live with them. Thus, she moved away from the custody of her mother and into their home, where her new guardians were directed to provide her with life skills training and experience to help her work towards independence, which is another big victory. There’s a common assumption with developmentally disabled people that they live in a static existence, unable to move forward, and Hatch is defying that by showing that she can develop life skills and is developing them with the eventual goal of living freely in the community on her own terms.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 02:00:05 +0000
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