In the past five years, over 570 people with disabilities have been murdered by their parents, relatives, or caregivers.
On Friday, March 1, the disability community will gather across the nation to remember these disabled victims of filicide – disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers.
We see the same pattern repeating over and over again. A parent kills their disabled child. The media portrays these murders as justifiable and inevitable due to the “burden” of having a disabled person in the family. If the parent stands trial, they are given sympathy and comparatively lighter sentences, if they are sentenced at all. The victims are disregarded, blamed for their own murder at the hands of the person they should have been able to trust the most, and ultimately forgotten. And then the cycle repeats.
The Disability Day of Mourning website is a memorial to the people with disabilities who were victims of filicide. Active cataloging of cases started in mid-2014; this site contains cases from 1980 to the present.
What is the Day of Mourning?
Every year on March 1st, the disability community comes together to remember the victims of filicide – people with disabilities killed by their family members. Vigils are held on the Day of Mourning in cities around the world.
What is filicide?
“Filicide” is the legal term for a parent murdering their child. In the disability community, “filicide” is used when talking about a parent or other relative or household member killing a child or adult relative with a disability, by action or inaction. Legally, these cases are categorized as murder, manslaughter, or simply homicide.
When we say “filicide,” we are talking about a pattern of violence that starts when a parent or caregiver murders their child or adult relative with a disability and continues in how these murders are reported, discussed, justified, excused, and replicated.
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While there will be no formal vigil held today on Ohio Wesleyan’s campus, please keep the victims of filicide in your thoughts and prayers. This is an overlooked and underdiscussed topic. The victims did not deserve this. Don’t let them be forgotten.
OWU Sponsoring Organization/Office: Bishops For Accessibility
Contact: Claire Holsted at caholsted@owu.edu