Eugenics is a bad idea, a bad idea that, like all bad ideas, has victims. Efforts to keep those deemed inferior from reproducing or even existing were a central part of the Nazi experiment in Germany, which upended the entire world and led to the extermination of millions of so-called “lives unworthy of life.”
And yet, eugenics is still with us. Not (thank God) the eugenics of the Nazi variety, but the West has long been unable to shake the sort of eugenics that’s reminiscent of the kind practiced before the Third Reich. This quieter type of eugenics is sold with the claim to have the best interests of victims and society in mind. Proponents wear clean, white lab coats or judges’ black robes, while still dehumanizing and advancing evil.
Just a few days ago, a British judge ordered that a woman with mental disability, who is in her twenties and in her second trimester of pregnancy be forced to have an abortion. This order was contrary to the communicated wishes of both the anonymous woman and her mother, who is an immigrant from Nigeria and a former midwife.
Judge Nathalie Lieven of the Court of Protection, which adjudicates cases involving mentally disabled persons, acknowledged that her order for a forced abortion was “an immense intrusion” into this young woman’s life, but she insisted the state was acting in her “best interests…” Having this child, Judge Lieven argued, would be more traumatic than killing it, because this disabled woman couldn’t possibly understand what it means to be a mother.
In a shockingly patronizing note, the judge went on: “I think she would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll.” So, presumably, the decision should be taken out of her hands and the hands of her family—who promised to care for the baby.
Thank God, as the Catholic News Service reported last Monday, the English Court of Appeals overturned this frightening ruling and halted the forced abortion, at least for now. The three justices on the Court promised to release the reasons for their decision at a later date. It’s anyone’s guess what they’ll say.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: Christian Post, John Stonestreet and G. Shane Morris
BCNN1 WP 