History Main / AbandonTheDisabled

This trope often appears in more "primitive" or dystopian societies where those with disabilities are ostracized. A CareerEndingInjury might lead to this in {{Proud Warrior Race}}s.

* ''Literature/KeasFlight'' contains a prenatal example. Embryos that test positive for genetic disorders such as autism are removed from the womb and cryonically-preserved for later. Before long so many embryos have been rejected that it becomes clear most of them will never be adopted, so instead they're put on starships and sent into space to colonize new worlds. They aren't really expected to survive the journey - the government only wants to get rid of them while still coming across as benevolent.

* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', babies born with disabilities and defects are left to die. Leah was almost killed upon birth for having heterochromic eyes, under the belief that she was cursed, but her mother wouldn't allow it.

* In ''Literature/SeedsOfYesterday'', Melodie freaks out the moment her husband Jory is paralyzed in an accident and pulls away from him more and more--her mother-in-law Cathy has to literally drag her to the hospital to visit him--eventually having an affair with his brother and finally abandoning him and their children.

* AbandonTheDisabled:

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EccE-xl2eWE My new wife was abusing my daughter behind my back]]'': Tatsuya's first wife divorces him upon finding out their daughter Minori was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzvpY9g9v_Q Husband abandoned our autistic daughter and ran off with the younger brother]]'': After Sakura was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder, her dad Sorao ignored her and ran off with his younger son Yuki, leaving only Sakura under Nano's care.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rv3OCBuI2Q Scum parents threw away their daughter, and when they tried to come back...]]'': Rena's husband abandoned her and their 1-month-old daughter Hana when he found out she was diagnosed with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohtahara_syndrome Ohtahara epileptic syndrome]]. Later on, Rena herself seems to do this as well by having her older sister Nano look after Hana while drinking her sorrows at bars.
* ''WebAnimation/RevengeFilms'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc_RZd6zYJw Alex]] got injured in a car accident and became disabled from it. Therefore, his grandparents decided to abandon him because of that and instead decided to [[spoiler:have their other sons hit on his wife and have her remarry one of them instead]].

* This is discussed in ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'' when Ganondorf and Aveil are discussing a blind Gerudo child, unknowingly Ganondorf's own daughter with Zelda, that they met in the woods. They don't know who the mother is but assume her DisappearedDad is a Hylian. Both assume that the mother is in hiding, either because of the FantasticRacism Gerudo often suffer or because the father abandoned his disabled child:
-->'''Aveil''': "The mother may very well be in hiding because of the girl's condition. I'll bet the child resembles her father very much, and he might be angry or disappointed in her disability."
-->'''Ganondorf''': "Such bullshit. Abandoning that precious angel over something so trivial... Don't those Hylians know their matron goddess is blind as well?"
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Bubbles}}'' ends with Derpy's mother leaving her developmentally and physically impaired daughter for dead in a forest. Derpy survives the incident.
* The ''Literature/WarriorCats'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7506379/1/The-Broken-Cat The Broken Cat]]'' is about a kit born with three legs instead of four. She's kicked out of her Clan at birth for fulfilling a prophecy. She's adopted by [=BloodClan=] and named Snowy.
* Boris in ''Fanfic/HeritageOfTheWolf'' was run out of his flock of geese after he grew old and slow.
* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', defied and discussed; the Hooligans of Berk, thanks to having a low birthrate from dragon venoms causing miscarriages, don't engage in the exposure of disabled, sickly, or premature infants (like Hiccup) that other Norse societies would have during the era. Dragons, however, would often abandon their own who were disabled, especially if they were unable to fly.

* In the ''Fanfic/TheyreAllGirlfriendsAU'', Heather McNamara's mom leaves when she's a child because she can't handle her daughter's autism.

* At the end of the first book of the ''Literature/Monument14Trilogy'', [[spoiler:Dean, Astrid, and Chloe are left behind when the others leave the store because they have type-O blood, and therefore are susceptible to the HatePlague outside.]]

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''

* Played with in the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Savant", where Mr. Nicholson walks out on his brain-damaged wife... after learning that she'd been harboring resentments towards their developmentally disabled daughter prior to the beating that caused her brain damage. He might have been willing to stay with her in order to help her recover, but decided that he didn't want to risk her hurting their daughter if she ever regained her former personality.

* ''WebAnimation/MangaSoprano'': In ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgoYkG0Zdx4 Because I was visually impaired,My mother said "You're a child I don't want."'']] [sic], Sae is abandoned by her mother for becoming blind, after [[spoiler:she herself caused the accident that turned Sae blind in the first place]].

* Famously [[DefiedTrope defied]] by early humans, whose fossils show signs of long term care of crippling injuries. Margaret Meade described it as the first sign of civilization in a culture.