Disability and ethics discussed in Malta congress

Disability has become a touchstone and expression of our humanity," said President Eddie Fenech Adami in his opening speech of the Third Mediterranean Congress on Disability, which was held recently in Malta.

The congress was looking "towards a new humanism" very particularly in the Mediterranean and dealing with "ethics and disability". The 16 countries represented at the meeting were mainly from the Mediterranean, from Morocco to Lebanon, but representatives of countries like The Netherlands and Poland were also present.

The congress was organised by an association set up three years ago, called "Mediterranean without Handicap", meaning without obstacles, or inclusive. It was held under the patronage of the President of Malta and Dr Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic.

Dr Fenech Adami gave a bird's eye view of the people's awareness and the legal tools being created to offer to the disabled the best of opportunities to improve their lifestyle. The President of Italy's message to the congress, read by Dr Paolo Andrea Trabalza, the Italian Ambassador, recalled the values of solidarity, the full development of the human person and the respect due to each and every individual.

Four Sessions

The congress's four sessions dealt with Disability, Ethics, Research, as well as the Family and Education. The key speakers opened horizons that made the Malta meeting just a starting point and gave the 130 participants more than enough food for thought to take back home.

Rev. Professor Emanuel Agius, who presided over the congress, dealt with "Disability bioethics and human rights", touching on such points as "disability and human dignity", and asking questions such as "Is there a right not to be born disabled?"

Professor Adriana Pessina of the Catholic University of Milan, spoke of "Ethics of the Human Condition and Justice". One cannot speak of the quality of life, said Pessina, as if in contrast to human dignity. The latter was to be taken for granted. She warned that there was a latent rebirth of the eugenic temptation in western society that unfortunately has sneaked through history, taking the shape of segregation or other unjust discriminations.

The session on research, chaired by Dolores Gauci, president of Global Alliance of Mental Illnesses Advocacy Network, offered very interesting contributions. Dr Matilde Leonardi, a neurologist who works with the World Health Organisation and is adviser on social policy to several governments, read a paper on research and social and health policies.

Professor Alfred Cuschieri of the University of Malta, presented a paper on research that he and his team carried out which showed how medicine has a central role to play by identifying the cause of the underlying disability condition, understanding the mechanism leading to it, modifying its course and consequences, and finding new ways of treating, curing and preventing causes of the condition.

Another speaker was the renowned psychiatrist, Professor Luigi Croce, a lecturer on mental impairment in Italy, Britain and the United States, and member of different national and international associations including the World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. He spoke on new models of quality of life for people with intellectual disability.

Experience of daily life

The audience attending assiduously throughout the four sessions was a motley group. Side by side with academics were participants who came literally from the front line of daily life: persons with different disabilities, parents of disabled persons, carers who work with groups of disabled people, as well as professionals who are witnesses to very interesting experiences.

An experience of particular interest was the short talk given by Rev. Dr Mario Castagnini, who besides being a priest and neurologist, has also worked in the missions. The Papal Nuncio, Mgr del Blanco Prieto, remarked that he remembered him in Angola. Fr Castagnini referred to his first hand experience with spastic children who are diagnosed as early as possible, and are treated for neurological development problems with considerable success.

Dr W.H.E. Buntnix, a Dutch psychologist, a professor of psychology at the University of Maastricht, and director of research and development at the Koraal Group, explained how this group provides support services for persons with intellectual disability and their families.

Marthese Mugliette, chairperson of the Down's Syndrome Association, argued that although positive steps forward have been made in Malta in favour of Down's Syndrome children to enable them to attend school up to secondary school level, there is still a gap to fill when they leave school and look for a job.

Fr Trevor Fairclough and George Harrington, who introduced to the audience a method of catechising or educating in the faith, made an invaluable contribution to the congresspersons with mental disability. Symbolic catechesis is based, as the name implies, on the possibility of symbolic awareness, which includes the use of all the senses.

The Special Religious Development (SPRED) method, which has been adopted by Id-Dar tal-Providenza, was also presented to the congress. It is a valid attempt at reaching disabled people on a spiritual level and introducing them to the supernatural.

In her closing speech, Dolores Cristina, Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity, in a way hinted at this higher dimension of development of the human person when we are dealing with people with mental disability. "Paradoxically," she said, "humanism often uses languages and images that appear to privilege the most able people... making ideals out of rationality, anatomy and independence... may make us more determined to see that, as much as possible, people with physical or mental disability can be empowered to participate in the pursuit of these ideals."