Proposed Down syndrome screening programme

PRESS RELEASE
A press release from Family Life International NZ

Monday 9th November, 2009

Proposed Down syndrome screening programme tells disabled people that their lives do not have the same value or worth

News that New Zealand may get a national screening programme for Down syndrome next year is extremely disturbing says Family Life International.

“This programme will simply result in babies with Down syndrome being targeted with abortion in an attempt to weed out these people from our society” says Family Life International media spokesperson, Brendan Malone.

Recent studies have shown that these types of screening programmes have led to the situation where 95% of babies with Down syndrome are now being aborted in Spain, 90% in the the United Kingdom, and 84% in Norway.

What is doubly concerning about these screening programmes is that new research suggests that they are not as reliable as first thought, and this is almost certainly leading to the abortions of babies who have no disability whatsoever.

“This screening programme will target people with a disability, and then see them killed simply because they are disabled. This is not medicine, this is not healthcare, this is unjust eugenics pure and simple; where human beings will be killed simply because they happen to be disabled” says Brendan Malone.

“As a human family we are advantaged by the presence of the disabled people who live amongst us, and any attempt to remove them from our societies will be to our detriment, and to the detriment of the disabled members of our communities.”

“The simple truth is that these screening programmes send a very clear message to disabled people that their lives do not have the same value or worth, and that they are not as welcome in New Zealand society as people without disability are.”

“This screening programme is unjust and it has absolutely no place in a country which claims to care about human rights, and equal respect and dignity for disabled people” says Brendan Malone.

ENDS

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