Medicine: Rights for Epileptics

An epileptic living in Delaware is prohibited from driving a car, is branded a criminal if he tries to marry, and can be sterilized on the decision of community or state officials, none of whom need be doctors. His plight, duplicated to some extent in nearly half the 48 states,-is caused partly by the fear that he will have a seizure endangering others (e.g., while driving), partly by the belief that epileptics are mental defectives and that their illness is hereditary. The truth is that, while it is rarely cured, the use of modern...