European moral complacency is facilitating a genocideBy George F. Will
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/the-real-down-syndrome-problem/Iceland must be pleased that it is close to success in its program of genocide, but before congratulating that nation on its final solution to the Down syndrome problem, perhaps it might answer a question: What is this problem?
. . . Now, before Iceland becomes snippy about the description of what it is doing, let us all try to think calmly about genocide, without getting judgmental about it. It is simply the deliberate, systematic attempt to erase a category of people. So, what one thinks about a genocide depends on what one thinks about the category involved. In Iceland’s case, the category is people with Down syndrome . . .
. . . Highly (almost but not perfectly) accurate prenatal-screening tests can reveal Down syndrome in utero. The expectant couple can then decide to extinguish the fetus and try again for a normal child that might be less trouble, at least until he or she is an adolescent with hormonal turbulence and a driver’s license . . .
. . . America, where 19 percent of all pregnancies are aborted, is playing catch-up in the Down syndrome-elimination sweepstakes (elimination rate of 67 percent, 1995–2011). So is France (77 percent), which seems determined to do better. In 2016, a French court ruled that it would be “inappropriate†for French television to run a two-and-a-half-minute video (“Dear Future Momâ€) released for World Down Syndrome Day, which seeks to assure women carrying Down syndrome babies that their babies can lead happy lives, a conclusion resoundingly confirmed in a 2011 study, “Self-perceptions from people with Down syndrome.†The court said the video is “likely to disturb the conscience of women†who aborted Down syndrome children . . .
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Note: Mr. Will himself is the father of a Down's syndrome son---his oldest, Jonathan, who will turn 46 in May.--EA.
