To cover contributing editor Lisa Miller’s look into the case of a woman whose baby was taken away at birth due to her intellectual disability, New York Magazine used an art photo from “Domestic Vacations” by Julie Blackmon, whose work is inspired by the everyday lives of families. In the context of New York’s cover, the image is meant to convey the anxiety behind the story — it’s an innocent moment but also suggests vague peril.
“We were looking for heightened images of classic quotidian scenes of babies in domestic environments,” says New York’s Jody Quon.
“This is the most fundamental of human rights: the ability to reproduce and raise your children,” Kelly Buckland, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living, says. It’s not that all disabled people make good parents, Buckland told Miller, it’s that their parenting should be assessed on its merits and not on the basis of their disability.