Yesterday I heard a brief story on WBBM radio that said Tennessee had passed a bill that would make abandonment of an adult child with developmental disabilities a felony.
I’ve searched for reference to the legislation, but cannot find anything.
Coincidentally attorney William Choslovsky had an opt-ed piece published in the Chicago Tribune.
I asked for and was granted permission to publish his unedited submission. It is below.
Tomorrow, I’ll share some thoughts on the subject and some of Choslovsky’s views that came out in an over hour conversation on the subject.
Condemning a Mother or a System?
At wits end and unable to obtain services in Illinois, Eva Cameron abandoned her 19 year old severely disabled daughter in a Tennessee bar last month. Cameron was much criticized, if not condemned. After all, what kind of mother would do such a thing?
William Choslovsky
Perhaps one who tried for years — and waited patiently — for services to help her child. Any services. Services the law requires the state to provide. Services that never come, despite promises and waiting lists.
In Illinois there are more than 10,000, maybe close to 20,000, Eva Cameron’s waiting for help for their child. Some of the Eva Cameron’s are old, in their 80’s, having cared for their profoundly retarded child in their homes for more than 50 years.
With no help.
In some cases, these mothers are essentially caring for an infant for 50 years. Afraid to die for only one reason: because they fear what will become of their “child.” Tick tock.
Frankly, Eva’s strategy was successful.
When her daughter was returned to Illinois, she was deemed “abandoned” and considered to be in “crisis.”
You see, once in “crisis,” then you may actually get services in Illinois.
And Eva’s daughter has now gotten services in Illinois at an unnamed “residential facility.”
It only took abandoning her in a bar 500 miles away.
To be sure, Eva is probably not blameless, but what do we as a society, as a culture, take from this?
Most only throw daggers at Eva.
State bureaucrats, rather than looking inward and acknowledging a broke, underfunded system, instead seek to punish Eva.
In commenting on the case, an official said that the state hopes to “hold the mother accountable.”
But kind of telling, only when Eva abandoned her daughter 500 miles away was the state held accountable.
= = = = =
William Choslovsky, a Chicago lawyer who has worked pro bono on disability cases, has a profoundly retarded sister who resides at Misericordia.
At least we have enough money to give everyone a free cell phone if they are living in poverty.
You know the critical things in life that people cannot live without…remember back 10-20 years ago when nobody had cell phones, life was horrible!!!
Back to seriousness; I think the system is at fault to a degree, but I am also in the belief that you had the kid…take care of them!
Too many people these days have kids and pawn them off for their parents to take care of or expect the state to take care of them.
My parents worked 1st and 2nd shift and only saw each other on weekends, but those weekends were always special.
Today people expect others to do everything for them and are irresponsible. Enough of my ranting…good day!
While I don’t like what happened to this young girl and I don’t like even reading it I just might be able to understand a little bit about how the mother felt.
I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to care for two children with developmental disabilities.
It must be both painfull to see your children in this situation and also exhausting after day in and day out special care with no hope for future change.
I suspect the mother was hoping someone else would be able to do a better job at caring for the girl than she was.
I don’t think the comment by Jim says: 08/02/2012 at 7:14 am is the correct way to look at this issue.
IL is almost the worst in the country in helping with disabled children and the mentally ill.
If our corrupt state would spend less on so many useless things, we’d have the money to help out the disabled.
It’s too bad the mother chose a bar.
Maybe a church would have been a better solution, as supposedly her church members told her that TN was the place to go.
Maybe the mother could have moved to TN, who knows…
My 22 y.o. nephew is disabled, intelligence of 6 y.o. forever.
The family lives in Wisconsin because of him – moved there 10 years ago.
My brother-in-law has a 90 minute commute to work in IL.
They can’t leave WI, they would have to leave their son behind.
IL is just awful, that is a fact.
What Eva Cameron did was not just an act of desperation: it was a political act.
Holding Ms. Cameron “accountable.”
What a statement.
This woman has cared for two handicapped offspring for all of these years with little help from the state, and they think she should be the one who is ashamed?
My wife and I have two adult sons in their 20s still living at home.
We know several other families (in Oak Park) in the same circumstances.
We know what a disgrace the State of Illinois is.