As part of a nation-wide Day of Mourning, disability rights advocates in the Edison area will be holding a vigil on March 1st, to honor the lives of disabled people murdered by their families and caretakers.
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), which tracks these cases, has compiled a list of over 1300 reported murders of people with disabilities by relatives or caregivers over the last 39 years. The total number of killings is likely higher than the amount which are reported in news media.
This problem is made worse by irresponsible news coverage which presents these murders as the sympathetic acts of loving and desperate parents, by a justice system which often gives a lighter sentence to a parent who kills a disabled child, and by the dangerous cultural prejudice that says a disabled life is not worth living.
