Constructing mortality : ethics and conflicts of the religious education of children and adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities

Abstract

The delivery of Religious Education to children and adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities is based upon the implicit assumption that such pupils have the cognitive capacity to comprehend religious principles in the first place.  Furthermore, the concept of immortality, in its various forms, originates from the cessation of a corporeal existence, although there is little evidence that the intellectually disabled have any understanding of the finality of death.  Additionally, while religiosity may be assumed, spirituality is almost completely neglected.  This renders the intellectually disabled increasingly vulnerable to medical and judicial ethics in relation to ‘quality of life’ decision-making, as only the neurological and motor functioning of the person is assessed and valued.  Furthermore, therapeutic interventions such as bereavement counselling and palliative care should address the totality of the person.  However, this is difficult to achieve with existing assumptions and knowledge.

The pedagogy of ‘Special’ religious education’s taxonomy is hierarchical in its exposure to non-Christian religious and spiritual interpretations.  Alternative belief systems may be more accessible to the intellectually disabled, enabling the person to make sense of their own and others’ mortality.  This thesis presents phenomenological accounts from six intellectually disabled minds: from within such complex but impaired chambers, it represents the search for both gene and genie.

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