Congratulations to "ll The Lotus ll", and everyone else here who had families who believed in them enough to fight and help them to be all that they can be.

It's 6:30am EST, and I just put my son on the school bus to Jr. high school. In addition to what he learns at school today, he will educate his "normal" peers on the intrinsic value of human life, and the importance of an inclusive community.

Unfortunately, those are things that some of the people posting here have yet to learn.

Mooseman, it sounds to me like you are ignorant of the subject. Just because someone had special needs, doesn't mean that they're are any less deserving of life.

And who are you to decide what constitutes "making a difference" in the world? I'd say that the physicians who treated this child (and my child) have learned a heck of a lot from them. I'd say that people who know and love children with special needs have learned a lot about love, patience, and tolerance.

How dare you say that these children don't make a difference?

ok, I have to jump in here... I have a child that, while not born prematurely, has had many of the medical complications of one.

A fortune was spent on keeping my child alive. He will never be normal. But he has a good quality of life, which he enjoys to the best of his ability.

I think that if you were to ask him if it was worth it, he'd say, "Yes." If you asked anyone else who knows him, they'd definitely say, "Yes." To know my boy, is to love him, and he brings so much joy to everyone around him.

And while you may bash me for my selfishness in spending all that money to keeping him alive in those early months, I can say that I am grateful to be his momma, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

He is the greatest blessing of my life.

Nope. What the baby is suffering from was its mother's out of control gestational diabetes. I hope they keep a close watch on the baby's blood glucose levels.

As the parent of a special needs child, just reading the info on Neatorama makes me want to vomit. How any parent can allow their child to be treated so cruelly is beyond me.

I don't know if I can bring myself to read the full article.

I can't wait to read this book. My 14 yo son is Deaf, and has created many "home signs" in addition to using American Sign Language, which he has learned and used since he was a baby.

What's amazing is that other Deaf understand his reasoning for his home signs; they accept and then use them as well.

He also says that he has two families: his hearing (home) family and his Deaf family. This is his way of demonstrating how important other Deaf and Deaf culture are to him.