Down’s syndrome babies depicted as non-persons in major UK newspaper
Blood test still years away
Recent media coverage of a blood test for
Down’s syndrome suggests that children with the condition are being depicted as
non-persons. The Daily Mail, Britain’s second-largest newspaper, announced that
“A quick inexpensive blood test for Down’s syndrome that could save the lives
of hundreds of unborn babies each year is being developed by scientists”.
However, the main result of the test would to terminate hundreds of unborn
babies with Down’s syndrome.
The lives of unaffected babies could be considered
“saved” only in the sense that they would not be miscarried as a result of
invasive investigations to detect and destroy Down’s syndrome babies.
Despite the publicity given to this
preliminary report of research by Dutch scientists at the annual conference of
the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, a successful test is
still several years away. Professor Stephen Robson, a spokesman for the Royal
College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, described it as
the “holy grail” of pre-natal testing. ~ Daily
Mail, June 30
Michael Cook
Down syndrome
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
Are Dutch doctors too willing to euthanise people with autism and intellectual disability?
Will legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide lead to unnecessary deaths because of an able-ist bias against intellectual disability and autism?...
Euthanasia in Quebec: seamless service at a friendly funeral parlour
In Quebec, the number of cases of euthanasia has risen from 63 in 2015-2016 to 3663 in 2021-2022. Nowadays many...
Against commercial-assisted suicide
The journal Bioethics recently published an attack on commercial assisted suicide (CAS). The author, Yoann Della Croce, condemns it as...
Norway to export sperm
Danish sperm banks have grown into a successful export industry. Now Norway seems to be following the same path. The...
Denmark: parliament pressured to OK euthanasia
A proposal to legalise euthanasia in Denmark has broken the threshold of 50,000 signatures to put it before the Danish...
Australian judges need to review standards for gender dysphoria treatment
Most judges and lawyers in Australia know little about the white-hot debate amongst doctors over appropriate treatment for gender-dysphoric children....