In 2012, the European Court of Human Rights heard a case concerning a woman who filed a suit against a doctor for breaching his obligation to prescribe a screening test for Down syndrome. The woman, Anita KRŪZMANE, gave birth to a baby with Down syndrome and claimed that her right’s had been violated in respect to her right to have an abortion.
However, the court denied the suit in June.
The JérômeLejeuneFoundation said the following about the case in their press release:
The Jérôme Lejeune Foundation has applauded the fact that the court abstained from considering a child with Down syndrome a cause of harm to the mother. It did not expressly recognize the abortion of a child with Down syndrome as a right in the name of the European Convention on Human Rights (article 8 concerning the respect to the right to a privacy), but only and indirectly recognized a right to information of women concerning the health of their expected babies.
The Foundation has noted with satisfaction that the Court did not grant the applicant, on the ground of material harm (the lack of resource and the allowance for the child), the 253.000 euros demanded. Thus, it did not consider that there was any wrong done on the grounds of the birth.
This decision from the European court means that they denied KRŪZMANE’s request for compensation and she will not receive any money from the suit. It also means that it is not a human right to abort a baby with Down syndrome.
Unfortunately, her case isn’t the only one of a mother filing a lawsuit against medical professionals because her baby was born with Down syndrome. In 2012, an Oregon family won a $2.9 million dollar “wrongful birth” lawsuit after a hospital missed their daughters Down syndrome diagnosis. The parents said that they would have terminated the pregnancy if they had not been assured that their baby did not have the genetic condition.
Additionally, this year we saw yet another example of inhumane treatment toward children with Down syndrome. David and Wendy Farnell abandoned their son with Down syndrome in Thailand but kept his healthy twin sister and escaped to Australia. Ever since, the Child Protection officials of Thailand have been working tirelessly to locate his parents. However, it emerged last week that they have been hiding in their own home in Australia. Sadly, before Gammy was born, his parents wanted a surrogate to abort him because of his diagnosis. But the surrogate refused and gave birth to both children.
While these examples of abuse and eugenic ideologies toward children with Down syndrome are disheartening, pro-abortion advocates stick to it because they believe aborting a disabled baby is better than the alternative. In other words, they would rather have abortionist’s dismember children limb by limb, than let them live. They even argue that this would be the “humane choice”.
Ask yourself, if your father was limited by cancer and had to suffer through chemotherapy, or you had a child with autism who was ridiculed by peers, would you be ok with someone killing them simply because they would face hardship? Would you say the kindest thing society could do would be to end their life? Of course not. People with disabilities are worthy of the same dignity given to the rest of us.
The same goes for children with Down syndrome. They should not be defined by their capabilities or struggles, but by the fact that they are a part of the human family. When we begin to define a person’s value by what they can or cannot do, we are taking steps toward an ugly future, where society decides when a life is worth eliminating.
By Sarah Zagorski
Source: LifeNews.com
