Disabled Babies Have Rights, Too

Down Syndrome Babies Have Rights, Too

By Father Jonathan Morris
FOX News Religion Contributor

Imagine a world free of Down syndrome. Now imagine a world free of babies who already have Down syndrome. There’s a difference in these two scenarios, but you would never know it by reading newspapers in the United Kingdom. For these reporters and for the researchers they quote, Down babies are not babies—they are a disease.

No matter your stance on abortion, the following story should be appalling.

Without exception, the major papers in the U.K. today are praising as “risk-free” a new procedure being developed in Hong Kong that will detect in the mother’s bloodstream a Down syndrome pregnancy. This simple blood test would replace the current “risky” method of inserting a needle into the mother’s womb to extract amniotic fluid near the fetus, a procedure that takes place sometime after the 14th week of pregnancy and sometimes results in miscarriage.

The “risk” the papers all reference is the possibility of harming a non-Down baby.

Listen to the twisted logic of the lead researcher, Professor Dennis Lo, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong: “I think the major impact of our test would be to make prenatal testing safer for the fetuses.” And then he goes on, “It would have the positive effect of saving normal fetuses from invasive and potentially dangerous procedures such as amniocentesis. This would also alleviate the stress of pregnant women going through prenatal testing.”

I can hardly believe so many journalists allowed Professor Lo to get away with suggesting prenatal testing for Down syndrome is all about looking out for the wellbeing of the fetuses! Is a Down fetus not a fetus, or is its wellbeing not important? Neither of these tests can be good for him or her.

Which reminds me… The abortion debate today is in transition. Roe vs. Wade framed the conversation in terms of a woman’s constitutional right to privacy. Pro-life political wrangling has done little to change this. But today, science—and ultra-sound technology in particular—is calling into question the relevance of the court’s ruling.

Even if there is a right to privacy in the Constitution (not easily found), we know we have that right not because we are women or men, but rather because we are human beings. Today, as never before, when parents go to the doctor’s office and see live video of their child, they come to know with both their hearts and minds they are looking at another human being. If parents have rights because they are human, and if doctors show us the child, too, is human, it follows that babies, too, have rights.

It’s no wonder, then, that more than seventy-five percent of mothers considering an abortion who see an ultra-sound image of the fetus, and hear its heartbeat, decide to keep the child.

Science—not religion and not pro-life politics—will transform the way we think about abortion.
Unless, of course, we decide some human beings (the healthy, for example) have more rights than others.

God bless,
Father Jonathan

P.S. I look forward to all of your comments, especially those from people, like me, who are blessed to have very happy Down syndrome relatives.