Cure 'em or kill 'em on ABC soaps

This past week two different ABC soap operas had storylines culminating in the typical cure 'em or kill 'em scenario mainstream entertainment uses to illustrate it's angst about disability. Both situations involved long-time male characters whose lives have been intricately woven into the shows over more than a dozen years. Both characters have held typical male hero status in the past for their actions, physical attractiveness and morality, and both have been very popular with fans of each show.

On All My Children, Edmund Grey had been a paraplegic for many months now following some sort of tragic accident, and though the show's seemingly positive commitment to not miraculously curing him was a chance to explore the reality of life with a wheelchair, they did not take that opportunity. Instead, Edmund grew bitter, bemoaned the loss of his sexuality and distanced himself from his beautiful wife.

Edmund did return to his job post-injury, though how he managed to get there isn't clear, especially because of the ornamental nature of the ramp in the family mansion's sunken living room. The ramp -- long, lovely and not too steep -- was blocked by a door swinging inward into the living room. No wheelchair would have been able to get around that door. If the ramp had been moved over six inches or built wider, it would have been functional and a true example of making an awkward inaccessible room user-friendly. But actually living with a disability was never the point of Edmund's injury and living disabled was never meant to be Edmund's fate. Bitter disappointment and death apparently were.

Edmund was murdered last week -- some typical whodunit mystery -- and his tortured soul and twisted body are finally at peace. Oh, there had been risky surgeries to try and heal him, talk of marriage counseling and giving post-injury life a chance. Everyone but Edmund saw hope and alternatives to his angry impotence. But since a cure was impossible (as it should be, at this point in time, if spinal cord injury is the impairment), so it was death -- the other option for disability, once again. And yes, Edmund's dead body lay on a hosptial gurney, assuring the viewer he would not reappear years later without some supernatural intervention. He is well and truly dead.

And on General Hospital, Lucky Spencer was shot and lapsed into a "persistant vegetative state." On a ventilator, the doctors all believed him a hopeless case. In a clear adaptation of the Terri Schiavo legal battle, his father wasted no time and rushed to court in a fight against his son's aunt, brother and many friends who wished to keep Lucky alive. Perhaps three days had elapsed since his injury, but Lucky's father believed he must "pull the plug." His theory, tearfully pleaded in court, was that his son understood danger and needed the threat to his life. When the ventilator is turned off, if Lucky is "still in there somewhere" he will react on instinct and wake up, his father said. If not, it was useless all along. But Lucky's father felt this was the cure.

And of course it was the classic "cure." One way or another, the problem would be solved. The judge ruled for the father unplugging life support and miraculously Lucky began to breathe on his own. In a clear example of cure 'em or kill 'em dramatics, the cure was to either wake up instantly or die. Either way disability and the real issues of injury and impairment -- along with the social judgments making a story like this acceptable -- were disappeared. Lucky was almost immediately restored to perfect health and the ethical decisions made in court reinforced that dead is better than disabled.