I was born in September 1969 in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia and was immediately diagnosed as having a birth trauma. This diagnosis was soon formulated as cerebral palsy (some doctors have speculated that it might have been due to a rhesus conflict, others suspect the real cause to be carelessness by medical personnel). After the birth, the doctors did not leave my mother with much hope. At this time a young woman of 24, she was told that I would not live long and, at best, that I would remain a ‘vegetable’ for the rest of my life. Unofficially, she received a number of suggestions from the doctors (nowadays, perhaps best described as passive euthanasia). Many other disabled children have been, and continue to be, abandoned to the state at birth on the advice of doctors (see Human Rights Watch 1998).

The impact on my mother can only be imagined, particularly since I could have had an elder sister just three years earlier, who did not survive until birth. However, I decided to survive. Everyone except my parents dismissed my life in advance. Even many friends of the family shook their heads in disbelief. Faced with these circumstances, I can only assume that I owe my life to two really stubborn families, who came together to deny the critics and all those so-called realists.