Transformation from self-negation to self-affirmation

Secondly, what they were persisting in was a transformation from the state of “self-negation” to the state of “self-affirmation.” Disabled people were denying themselves because they had been led to believe that they were valueless in this society. Women, too, believed that they were less valuable than men. Hence, their fight against the Eugenic Protection Law Revision Bill was an irreplaceable process of acquiring a sense of “self-affirmation” that they are valuable as they are, and they do not have to deny themselves anymore. And once people get “self-affirmation,” most of their inner problems must have been solved. The main theme of their bioethical thoughts in that period was how to acquire “self-affirmation,” and the aim of their bioethical actions was to create society where various people can live with “self-affirmation.” Hence, their bioethics included a therapeutic dimension at its core; this is one of the reasons I want to call their activities “life studies.”

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Disability Movement and Inner Eugenic Thought
(2002)
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