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Transgenerational trauma and disability?

laurentanel's picture

            This week I decided to spend more time thinking about the different arguments presented in Fixed. I found it very interesting that there were many conflicting opinions presented in the film. We start out by hearing how positive and utopic the idea of transhumanism is. Then, a few more scholars and disability activists bring up the idea that a foundation of basic health care is needed before we can move forward to the advancements of bionic limbs and brain chips. This is the argument I was searching for, as I could not stop thinking about the fact that all of these futuristic technologies would only be accessible to wealthy people. Then the background of the disability community was brought up and the audience is reminded of the fact that disabled people have historically been the subject of oppression and neglect. This made me wonder about the community from an epidemiology perspective. Because disabled people have lived through a long history of elimination, would we be able to see trends of generational trauma similar to the patterns seen in other marginalized communities, like Native Americans, for example? Do families with a history of disability experience more of these poor health outcomes that stem from transgenerational trauma? I would be very interested in learning more about this, as it says so much about the lack of rights to basic health care, especially for the people that need it most.