Abortion for Disability  -- Part Two of Two

Editor’s note. The following appears on the blog of John Smeaton, director of the British Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). The remarks are few but eloquent, and there is a link to a speech delivered by Alison Davis, of “No Less Human.”

Alison Davis of No Less Human, SPUC's disability rights group, spoke powerfully at Oxford last month about abortion of disabled children. Children suspected of disability can be aborted up to birth in Britain. The text of her well researched, richly annotated talk is at www.spuc.org.uk/resources/alisonoxford.pdf

Alison's talk focuses on the ignorance of many health professionals of the facts about the disabilities for which they are screening. She details current eugenic thinking in the health profession according to which pre-natal testing and abortion are a bargain compared with the perceived burden of caring for a disabled child.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has even opened up a debate on the infanticide of newborn disabled children. Alison, herself disabled, writes: "once we give up on even one baby, however young, disabled or 'unwanted' s/he may be, we inevitably start on the slippery slope that will result in more and more killings."

Please send your comments to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Part One