[kellyhound]

Think this was going on for at least a century in a lot of different institutions across the nation.

[mikejudd]

I am scared that all too many countries face budget cuts that take away from those who need the help. The children. The Staff. Those who are meant to oversee. Those who are meant to ensure this sort of thing does not happen. I am certain this still goes on in some parts of the world and fearful that it still goes on in some small pockets of the first world (albeit with fewer children).

[DonB]

Geraldo is a douche, but that video is always disturbing to see. Those poor people.

[laurenhayden1]

This place looks like pure hell on earth. I don't know how any child who already is dealing with having special needs could ever heal from this form of neglect and abuse. This is hard to watch, and even harder to understand how people could be so cruel as to put these poor kids through this. The people responsible for this horrible place should've been jailed!

[stfmg]

[silverbell]

I work with teenagers with special needs. This is so hard to see, and it's so hard to think how recent this was. Special kids have the biggest hearts. It hurts to think of them thrown in the trash like this.

[cacher]

I don't get it. Am I supposed to care?

The Nazis euthanized all their mentally disabled. Surely that's a better option.

[Desensitisation]

Originally Posted by cacher ↗

I don't get it. Am I supposed to care?

The Nazis euthanized all their mentally disabled. Surely that's a better option.

There is a part of me that acknowledges that this would be - from the perspective of keeping the human species physically healthy at reduced cost - an appropriate solution. If you were a struggling nation with more pressing needs than keeping the mentally challenged alive and "healthy", children like this would no doubt suffer.

It seems we take care of the severely mentally retarded well these days, less so because of any real benefit to society at large, and more so because we can afford to do so, at least in first-world countries. We don't like to see them suffer, but we keep them alive because we are in a moral situation where killing them simply isn't an option. I wonder how many parents persist with taking care of their deficient child not because they want to, but because they know that if they don't society will judge them harshly.

This is, personally, why I would never father any child of my own. I honestly would not be able to take care of a special-needs child, as a part of me would forever be saying, "This is a waste of my time." I would want a child that I know will one day grow up to be self-sufficient and able to live of their own effort, and not be a burden on others. I can justify looking after a less-than-perfect pet, because any domesticated pet is generally always dependent on your care from start to finish; you don't raise a dog with the hopes of one day watching it leave your home to make it out in the big wide world by itself.

So I'll stick to having dogs and other animals as pets, and leave the fathering to "better" parents out there.