Is the workplace discriminating against parents?

Back in the day when my children were tiny, I worked 60-hour weeks as a senior editor at the LA Times Magazine. I depended heavily on the kindness of babysitters and preschool teachers, but the wheels pretty much stayed on the bus until Margaret was diagnosed with leukemia.

After that, it quickly became clear that my husband and I couldn’t manage two kids (one with both an intellectual disability and a chronic life-threatening illness) AND two high-powered jobs. If our family was going to survive, one of the jobs had to go. I left the Times -- a great loss for me, but one that seemed unavoidable.

Now that almost 20 years have passed, I often wonder whether the choices are less stark for parents who find themselves in similar circumstances today. Job or family? Family or job? Do people have to choose?

An in-depth story in today’s New York Times Magazine attempts to answer that question – and I guess I’m not surprised to learn things haven’t changed all that much for families despite the passage of landmark federal legislation. Or rather, things are much the same but a lot more lawyers are involved.

Writer Eyal Press introduces us to a woman who lost her job after her baby was born 16 weeks early, a man who was denied a request for time off to care for his ill wife and child, and a woman who was terminated after requesting a different work schedule so she could attend her son's therapy sessions. He traces lawsuit after lawsuit, discussing the issues in light of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Here’s how the headline frames the debate: “Do workers have a fundamental right to care for the families?” and “The latest front in the job-discrimination battle.”

Diabetic and determined

Team Type 1 in training. Photo by New York Times

The New York Times reports that athletes with Type 1 diabetes are "blasting out of the starting gate in full force.

"Because of new technology, the emergence of companies that help them manage their illness, the rise of successful role models and sheer determination, they are running marathons, doing 100-mile bike rides, completing Ironmen — many with their doctor’s blessing."

Public buys harmful epilepsy "myths": study

A study from the University College London finds that many people believe potentially harmful myths about epilepsy. A third would put something in the mouth of a person having a seizure to stop them from swallowing their tongue -- but doing so could block their airways. The study authors suggest that the inaccurate depiction of epilepsy in films may be perpetuating these myths, and contributing to negative stereotypes surrounding the disease. From the BBC.

Related story: In a first-person report on National Public Radio, a woman describes the stigma she faced as a child with temporal lobe epilepsy. The stigma didn't end until brain surgery stopped her seizures, she says.

Planned Kevorkian speech draws protests

Jack Kevorkian, shown in 1991 with his "suicide machine."
AP photo from New York Times.

A scheduled speaking engagement by Jack Kevorkian at the University of Florida is drawing protests from critics of euthanasia. Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, is organizing a petition drive seeking to get UF to withdraw its invitation to the man who has been called Doctor Death.

"The scheduled Oct. 11 appearance at UF will likely be his first paid public speaking engagement since his June 1 release from prison, according to his attorney. Kevorkian served eight years for second-degree murder in the poisoning of a man who had Lou Gehrig's disease."

Other recent coverage of Kevorkian includes:

-- An interview in the New York Times after his release from prison.

"But eight years behind bars and a strict list of promises to gain parole have done nothing to mellow the blunt, passionate, combative advocate for physician-assisted suicide. "

-- An interview by Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom.

"After an hour, I knew I wouldn't want to go via Jack Kevorkian, a man for whom the world is bleak, happiness is rare, belief is a waste of time and life is a finite, meaningless entity. The act he champions may indeed be one of compassion, but how can it be delivered by such a cold, cold heart?"

-- A column in the Boston Globe, "Helping my Father Die," by Darshak Sanghavi.

"Dr. Jack Kevorkian was never an attractive poster child for dignified and comfortable deaths for the terminally ill. That's too bad, because Kevorkian was on to something important."