The Future of the Disabled in Liberal Society questions developments in human genetic research from the perspective of persons with mental disabilities and their families. Hans S. Reinders argues that when we use terms such as disease and defect to describe conditions that genetic engineering might well eliminate, we may also be assuming that disabled lives are deplorable and horrific. Reinders points out that the possibility of preventing disabled lives is at odds with our commitments to the full inclusion of disabled citizens in society. The tension between these different perspectives is...

Does what we are capable of doing define us as human beings? If this basic anthropological assumption is true, where can that leave those with intellectual disabilities, unable to accomplish the things that we propose give us our very humanity? Hans Reinders here makes an unusual claim about unusual people: those who are profoundly disabled are people just like the rest of us.

He acknowledges that, at first glance, this is not an unusual claim given the steps taken within the last few decades to bring the rights of those with disabilities into line with the rights of the...

The village of Trosly-Breuil in northern France is home to one of the world's thirty-four L'Arche communities, where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. In 2007 the impressive group of social scientists and theologians who contribute to this book gathered there to respond to a question posed by the worldwide community's cofounder, Jean Vanier: -What have people with disabilities taught me?-
Editor Hans Reinders emphasizes that the purpose of these analyses and reflections is not to set those with disabilities apart. He explains that it is not their...