It is high time to dispense with the fear that ratification of the CRPD will somehow lead to a disintegration of U.S. sovereignty. Ratification of the CRPD is uncontroversial and can only have positive effects for individuals with disabilities and advocates for disability rights both in the United States and the international community. It should be ratified and enforced in the United States.
Despite the international prohibition on this practice, the United States is guided by a 1927 case that permits forced sterilization of individuals with intellectual disabilities. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the involuntary sterilization of the allegedly mentally disabled in Buck v. Bell.
In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court issued a momentous ruling stating that it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute inmates with intellectual disabilities. This statement seems straightforward. However, the Court failed to establish a specific test or define under what circumstances it considers individuals to be intellectually disabled for purposes of capital punishment. Thus, in practice, states are left to determine what standard to utilize.
