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patrickt
12-03-2012, 08:36 AM
A man working in a facility for people with developmental disabilities was arrested for sexual assault on patients in his care. His defense was, not surprisingly, that the sexual contact was consensual and the women enjoyed it. His defense failed.

Now, we have developmentally disabled people voting. Fifteen percent of our population is alleged to have some form of developmental disability. That's not an insignificant number. Then you can add people with dementia and you have a landslide election.

"RALEIGH — Cecil Pearson’s daughter Darlene told him she voted for Barack Obama for president. President of what? Cecil says Darlene couldn’t tell you. Darlene, 40, is developmentally disabled and functions cognitively at about the level of a 7-year old. She lives in a group home with five other adult women in Roanoke Rapids."
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=9710

Should this be allowed? Should teams of Democrats be allowed access to group homes and nursing homes to obtain signatures by guile or duress?

Some states have provisions for bipartisan teams to go into care facilities to assist people who are capable of voting to vote.

Captain Obvious
12-03-2012, 07:29 PM
I would be surprised but not shocked to find out that mentally incapacitated people are registered to vote.

This is a civil issue if so.

patrickt
12-04-2012, 10:01 AM
"The clerk told him that in North Carolina, a ruling of incompetence does not take away a person’s right to vote, get married, or enter into contracts, unless those rights are specifically spelled out and included in the competency proceedings, Pearson said. The clerk added that he could seek to have the order amended to state that Darlene has lost those specific rights, but that each exclusion requires a separate amendment and a separate fee."

In another thread where the group home took their residents in to vote the article cited had the paragraph above. That's the law in South Carolina. The woman who voted was registered to vote thanks to the liberal's motor voter law. Of course, she can't get a drivers license but when she got an ID her caretaker registered her to vote.

We allowed the bastards to pass laws that facilitate fraud. It's time to end it.

Adelaide
12-04-2012, 10:14 AM
There are a lot of disorders and varying levels of disability/severity under the umbrella term, "developmental disability." It would depend on the severity, but most group homes are for fairly serious cases so I voted no.

Peter1469
12-04-2012, 01:01 PM
I imagine that if 15% of the population fits into this box, it is another money making scheme by the medical industry.

patrickt
12-04-2012, 01:06 PM
More likely a money maker for their "caretakers". But, at the latest presidential election we saw that at least 30% of the population is developmentally disabled. The other 23% were dead, foreign nationals, repeat voters, and people who actually believe that voting for Obama was the same as getting fucked.

Adelaide
12-04-2012, 06:09 PM
I imagine that if 15% of the population fits into this box, it is another money making scheme by the medical industry.

Tough to tell what exactly is meant by "developmental disability" in the OP, but neurodevelopmental disorders are what you'd commonly associate with the term "developmental disorders" and impact approximately 12-14% of the population. That figure includes things as serious as severe autism and Down syndrome to ADHD, to learning disabilities... it's a very wide spectrum in terms of how severe the disability is and how it would impact an individual's ability to make a conscientious decision based on congitive functioning.

Captain Obvious
12-04-2012, 09:03 PM
I'm no doc nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I want to think that there is a medical/legal diagnosis that determines if someone has the mental capacity of an adult or not.

I tend to think that this is pretty consistent and it should be pretty clear if someone has the diagnosed mental capacity to legally enter into contracts, drive, own a gun or vote.

Adelaide
12-04-2012, 10:22 PM
I'm no doc nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I want to think that there is a medical/legal diagnosis that determines if someone has the mental capacity of an adult or not.

I tend to think that this is pretty consistent and it should be pretty clear if someone has the diagnosed mental capacity to legally enter into contracts, drive, own a gun or vote.

Sure, there are rating scales and clinical tools to use to assess the severity of a disorder and the impact it has on functioning... I suppose they could be reported to some government branch, similar to people with eye issues or seizure disorders who get reported to the DMV/Ministry of Transportation. I think it's a bit of a sticky issue, though. Would be controversial, I mean.

Peter1469
12-05-2012, 07:50 AM
How soon before the insurance industry got into those records and then based rates and even the decision to cover a person off that data?

patrickt
12-05-2012, 10:55 AM
Amazingly, in criminal case we see "experts" testifying the person is slow but within the normal range and other "experts" testifying that the person is profoundly retarded. So much for science in the hands of lawyers.

Peter1469
12-05-2012, 11:00 AM
That is why expert witnesses must be "qualified" and the opposing counsel gets to cross examine the witness. If the expert witness is for sale, the jury typically picks up on it.

I actually like systems where if either side wants a witness, the court handles it, so there is more chance of the witnesses being unbiased.

Captain Obvious
12-05-2012, 04:35 PM
How soon before the insurance industry got into those records and then based rates and even the decision to cover a person off that data?

Medical records are not public information and I'm not sure the insurance industry has access to this stuff. I'm guessing (but not sure, I'm not in the insurance industry) that insurance companies must obtain patient approval before being given access to medical information otherwise it's a HIPAA violation.

Peter1469
12-05-2012, 05:10 PM
Medical records are not public information and I'm not sure the insurance industry has access to this stuff. I'm guessing (but not sure, I'm not in the insurance industry) that insurance companies must obtain patient approval before being given access to medical information otherwise it's a HIPAA violation.

Correct. Legislation would have to be passed to allow that access.

patrickt
12-05-2012, 07:28 PM
I haven't read the 2,000+ pages of Obamacare but it's my understanding that all medical records will be in a federal database.

"One proposed departmental rule deals with what may become a centralized database containing patient medical records and pharmaceutical claim information.It's an extremely technical issue but Section 153.340 of a new HHS proposed rule dealing with Obamacare mandates that individual states (or the department) collect "raw claims data sets" from all insurers on all people with private coverage purchased either individually or through small employers, which includes that obtained from the new state exchanges the law requires be created. "
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2011/07/28/big-brother-obamacare-looks-to-collect-private-medical-info

patrickt
12-05-2012, 07:39 PM
That is why expert witnesses must be "qualified" and the opposing counsel gets to cross examine the witness. If the expert witness is for sale, the jury typically picks up on it.

I actually like systems where if either side wants a witness, the court handles it, so there is more chance of the witnesses being unbiased.

Definition of an expert witness is someone with more knowledge in a field than the average person. I've been qualified as an expert in areas in which I have no special training or education. Lawyers have access to list of "experts" based on whether they're a plaintiff or defense expert. If they don't testify for the side that hires them they don't get hired again and for some psychologists, testifying is their main source of income.

I was involved in a lawsuit as a plaintiff and I refused to have a "hired gun" psychiatrist testify to my "suffering". My attorney wasn't happy but when it was all over he said the other side's hired guns hurt them more than they helped. It wasn't that the jury was particularly aware but the defendant's attorneys picked hired guns who were slow on the draw and could hit the side of the barn if they were locked inside.