New Institute Will Study How Abortion, Euthanasia Target Disabled People

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 3, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New Institute Will Study How Abortion, Euthanasia Target Disabled People Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 3,
2007

Virginia Beach, VA (LifeNews.com) — Regent University, the Christian college in Virginia, has launched a new institute that will study how abortion and euthanasia are targeting the disabled community. The new organization will examine how the practices have created a multitude of human rights abuses ranging from sex-selection abortions to discrimination.

Billing itself as a "multicultural response to medical and cultural trends impacting people with disabilities, the Institute for the Study of Disability and Bioethics will examine these sensitive topics.

Mark P. Mostert, who will oversee the new center, calls the targeting of the disabled a global “silent war."

"Medical and other scientific advances have improved the lives of people with disabilities in many ways. Rapid advances in genetic and other research mean that we now know more about what causes many disabilities than ever before," Mostert says on the group’s web site.

"However, progress has a more difficult side. Science can now detect genetic anomalies in the womb, and culturally there is greater acceptance than ever before for abortion or euthanasia for those who, in others’ judgment, will not, or cannot live a high-quality life," Mostert adds.

Those forms of discrimination manifest themselves across the world and the Institute says approximately 100 million girls are missing from the world due to sex-selective abortions.

Studies show screening tests for Down Syndrome are inaccurate up to 40% of the time, yet abortion rates are as high as 95% for mothers carrying children diagnosed with Down’s, it adds.

Mostert told the Virginian-Pilot that the institute’s focus would not be based on a typical pro-life approach.

“I would put it not as much as a pro-life issue as a human rights issue,” he said.

A Regent faculty member, Mostert was raised in South Africa and said the new institute would focus on improving conditions for disabled children on the continent.

He ultimately hopes the center’s research will help Congress and state legislatures as well as nations in other parts of the world.

The group celebrated its opening this afternoon with a gala event featuring Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler; Jerri Ward, a Texas pro-life attorney helping disabled people there; former US Attorney General John Ashcroft; and Jay Sekulow, the lead attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice.

Related web sites:
Institute for the Study of Disability and Bioethics –
https://www.regent.edu/acad/schedu/isdb/home.cfm