Denmark is on its way to matching Iceland’s 100-percent abortion rate for unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome.
In 2014, the Danish government reported 98 percent of unborn babies who tested positive for Down syndrome were aborted.
And cultural attitudes toward children with disabilities are not getting any better in western culture. As The Federalist’s Georgi Boorman pointed out, Denmark is working to become “Down syndrome free” within the next decade.
The people of Denmark do not seem concerned about this eugenic push to eliminate children with disabilities. A Epinion poll recently found that 60 percent of Danes approve of aborting unborn babies with Down syndrome.
The ways the country is targeting unborn babies with disabilities are not always obvious, at first. While the country is not openly urging babies with disabilities to be aborted, it is encouraging prenatal testing and promoting discriminatory attitudes.
Boorman wrote:
CPH Post quotes the head of a Danish midwife association as saying, “When you can discover almost all the fetuses with Down Syndrome, then we are approaching a situation in which almost all of them will be aborted.”
The increasing availability of nuchal scans across Europe has had the same effect. Iceland claims it hasn’t had a DS birth in the last five years, and Holland is also following suit in the effort to be Down Syndrome free. The CPH article claims DS is heading for “extinction” in Denmark, but as a commenter pointed out, there’s a difference between extinction and extermination.
In a letter to the United Nations, the organization Down Pride questioned how these practices could expand to babies with other disabilities.
“The system of utilitarianism will not stop at Down syndrome,” the organization wrote. “Within the not too distant future other groups will be identified: risk for autism, schizophrenia, low IQ? Children with these conditions also easily cost 1 to 2 million euros.”
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Boorman continued:
The letter goes into some detail about how promotion of the Down Syndrome test is deeply tied to cost reduction efforts. Government healthcare is even more expensive per individual than private healthcare, so if you assume that universal healthcare means everyone will be cared for, for as long as the system is maintained, think again.
Preborn babies with genetic markers that may indicate disability will be the first to be denied care. The government may not make it a policy to exterminate babies with genetic abnormalities, but they will promote it. They will subsidize or mandate the tests, and government doctors will be taught to persuade the parents that abortion is the least tragic and most “responsible” choice. And they will silence the voices who proclaim Down Syndrome lives are lives well worth living.
The push to abort babies with disabilities is coupled with a growing acceptance of euthanasia for adults with disabilities or other ailments. Euthanasia advocates are pushing assisted suicide and euthanasia laws in Europe and North America. Canada recently legalized euthanasia, and Belgium expanded its laws in 2016 to allow children with disabilities to be euthanized, as well as adults.
In recent years, Western society has increasingly emphasized acceptance and diversity as values when it comes to human beings’ race, culture and gender; but when it comes to babies in the womb — and increasingly people with special needs — these values are thrown out. The most vulnerable human beings in society today are not being protected as they should. Instead, their lives are being weighed in dollars and cents.
