A story in today's Telegraph about "a cheap blood test that could allow doctors to check unborn children for Down's syndrome" is arguably the most significant news of the 21st century. This is not hyperbole. It's arguably the most significant news this century because it illustrates the culture of death in which we are living at its very worst.
Consider the following:
Dr Suzanna Frints, of Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who carried out the research on the new test, said that she hoped all women in the world [my emphasis] would be offered this test, according to the Telegraph report.
Dr Frints and her colleagues were reporting on their findings at the 26th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome.
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News reports Dr Frints as saying: “This is innovative translational research, and when we succeed in developing the MLPA procedure for use in maternal blood, we will be able to offer a safe, cheap, fast, reliable, and accurate noninvasive test, which will be of immediate benefit to pregnant women [my emphasis].”
The significance of a "non-invasive test" is explained by the Telegraph's report that amniocentesis, an invasive process which involves taking a sample of fluid from around the foetus, "can, in some cases, cause a miscarriage even if the woman is carrying a healthy foetus [my emphasis]".
Given that there's no cure for Down's Syndrome, it's crystal clear that the "immediate benefit to pregnant women" is that they will know they are carrying a child with Down's syndrome who can be killed by abortion without the prior risk of a test which may accidentally kill a child without Down's syndrome.
In summary: A story appeared today on the front page of the Telegraph in the UK and in scores of other news outlets throughout the world which, with a terrifying lack of irony, reports on scientific researchers publicly applauding as a possible breakthrough a new test for mothers-to-be throughout the world which will target the killing of some of the sweetest, most innocent, most vulnerable, most loving human beings on earth. To add insult to fatal injury, these loving children are dismissed with the inaccurate, contemptuous, term "unhealthy foetuses".
Tragically, in Britain, abortion up to birth for disabled babies was legalised by Parliament in 1990. Those who support such selective killings include David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, whose support for abortion of the disabled up to birth he has made quite clear. He is, in my view, supporting genocide. If I might plagiarize Fr Fleming's paper "Developing a global understanding of the inviolability of life from conception to natural death in and through the international institutions":
The questions David Cameron and others need to address are these: How is it not genocide to define some members of the human family as non-persons, thereby allowing them to be directly and intentionally killed by induced abortion? How is it not genocide to legally prescribe and actively promote the induced abortion of human beings on the grounds of their actual or perceived disability? If it could be shown that homosexuality was genetically influenced, and homosexuality was thought of as a disability, would the routine abortion of homosexuals be considered the crime of genocide against homosexuals?
You might like to read Fr Fleming's paper and his full section on the Genocide Convention here.
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Join SPUC's Facebook group
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy