Chris Meney, director of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney's Life, Marriage and Family Centre, has written an opinion piece published by today's Sydney Morning Herald:
We like to think we care deeply about those who suffer. We like to believe we are willing to do whatever we can to help those burdened by intellectual or physical disability. It seems to resonate with the way we believe we ought to act towards our fellow human beings.
But there are indications our society is moving towards avoiding having to associate or engage with the disabled, particularly the intellectually impaired.
The situation of the disappearing Down syndrome babies in Australia in the past few decades is a case in point. Of about 300 pregnancy terminations in NSW every year due to detected birth defects, 77 per cent are associated with a chromosomal abnormality. The most common is Down syndrome. Read on for the entire column.
The online publication has drawn wide ranging comments.
Edit 31/03/2010: And replies in the letters column yesterday and today also pose different view - click here and here.
The reaction to this article is predictable - with many men and women eve some with a child with DS justifying termination of affected lives on the grounds of "hard work". Yes it is hard work, so is watching a child die of terminal cancer, a child develop schizophrenia, a child suffer brain brain injury as the result of a car accident. Just because there is a hint of "hard work" ( a diagnosis of DS) during pregnancy doesn't mean termination should be wheeled in as the be all and end all. The only solution. The next pregnancy could be a child with cystic fibrosis, epilepsy or a propensity to autism. . .
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