20 June 2018

There can be no second-class citizens

The Tablet

Abortion and eugenics

Likening prenatal pregnancy testing to Nazi eugenics policies, Pope Francis set out his opposition to the screening of foetuses so that those found to be abnormal could be aborted.  “In the last century the whole world was scandalised by what the Nazis did to treat the purity of the race,” he said. “Today we do the same, but with white gloves.” He was addressing a delegation from Italy’s Family Association which was visiting the Vatican.

What Francis is saying in more dramatic language is similar to what the General Synod of the Church of England had said in February, when it unanimously welcomed a report which urged society to welcome and “celebrate” people with Down’s syndrome. This is the main category covered by abortion laws which permit termination of pregnancy in the event of a foetus being diagnosed as less than perfect. In Britain about 90 per cent of those so diagnosed are subsequently aborted, which inevitably means that the proportion of the population with Down’s syndrome is steadily declining. That is a great loss. Children and adults with Down’s syndrome are always a blessing, never a curse. They are in their own terms valuable members of the human family, to be treasured and loved. They are different but they are not inferior. They bring special gifts into the world. International Down’s Syndrome Day in March this year was marked by the release of a delightful YouTube video made by 50 mothers with 50 Down’s syndrome children – “50 Mums with 50 kids and 1 extra chromosome” – under the tag “wouldn’t change a thing”.

When such mothers are asked what stands out from their experience, many of them use the same word: “fun”. This is a far cry from the grim attitude towards Down’s syndrome which appears to be widespread in the medical profession – that to bring such a child into the world is a misfortune verging on calamity. That is why termination is always offered to any woman who has a positive result from amniocentesis. No doubt the same approach will apply once the new and safer non-invasive test for foetal abnormality has been rolled out across the National Health Service. 

If eugenics is about ridding the human race of hereditary characteristics thought to be undesirable, the Pope’s rebuke misses the mark, as Down’s syndrome is not a disease passed down the generations. Nor did the Nazis use abortion as part of their eugenics programme, as tests like amniocentesis had not been invented. They relied on sterilisation, and later on what they called euthanasia but was in fact cold-blooded systematic murder.

But Francis’ broader point is valid and urgent. The creation of a second-class group of human beings with no right to exist, because they fall short of some imagined ideal, is an attack on humanity itself. And that is precisely what the Nazis did.