Posted on 12/08/2008 3:41:24 PM PST by wagglebee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The government of Britain is coming under heavy fire for keeping secret the number of abortions purposefully done on babies because they are physically or mentally disabled. The abortions include those done on babies who would have been born with only a club foot or cleft palate.
The information commissioner ordered the release of the numbers to be a part of a new report showing the total abortions in England over the last six months.
However the Department of Health is resisting and claiming that the release of the numbers, even though that have been released in prior years, would somehow identify the women having the abortions. Yet, any personal information is redacted.
The law in the UK allows abortions for any reason up to 24 weeks into pregnancy and for reasons including possible birth defects for the unborn child at any time during the pregnancy.
Pro-life groups are concerned that the law is being abused by those who want to use it for eugenics purposes by killing potentially disabled babies.
"It is a disgraceful situation for this data to be suppressed," Professor Stuart Campbell, a leading obstetrician, said in response to the news. "This is not about whether one agrees with abortion. These statistics used to be published; now they are being withheld."
"Transparency is the essence of medicine. If we don't have that, all sorts of wrongdoing can go on," Campbell added.
In 2005, the health department stopped publishing the numbers of abortions in cases where less than ten were done, including the various cases that include disabled babies.
American bioethicist Wesley J. Smith also commented on the situation and said that transparency isn't the solution -- respecting the disabled is the answer.
"This is what we are becoming, aborting viable fetuses because they will not be physically perfect--and the UK government wishes to keep it all under wraps," he said.
Pro-life groups are concerned that the law is being abused by those who want to use it for eugenics purposes by killing potentially disabled babies.
That is the PURPOSE of these laws.
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Just wow, a cleft palate can often be fixed with one simple surgery, but I guess an abortion is cheaper and that is all that matters with socialized medicine
The West has just about reached the bottom of the slippery slope.
Is it supposed to be public knowledge? Does the law require it? If it doesn't then how can the British government be criticized?
Troy Aikman, Mia Hamm and Kristi Yamaguchi all had club feet and reached the pinnacles of their sports.
True, many birth defects can be corrected shortly after birth, but the surgeries and subsequent therapy and check ups will run in the tens of thousands of dollars, which is a price a national health system can’t afford.
Plastic surgeons around the world routinely perform cleft palate repair on those who cannot afford it (I know several of these doctors, they are all very wealthy and they derive far more satisfaction performing reconstructive surgery on the needy than they ever will from earning money they no longer need performing cosmetic surgery on the wealthy and vain); as far as club feet, the casts to correct them are very inexpensive.
Exactly. Evil bastard leftists want to exterminate anything they feel is not good enough.
This really scares me to death because what if there would’ve been testing that would’ve told my young parents (19 and 21yo) that I would’ve acquired diabetes at 9yo? Would they have possibly killed me instead of letting me have a pretty good life? I’ve lived with this for close to 40 years and plan to continue for a very long time!
Excellent point!
A $250 donation to Operation Smile buys a life. That’s how I put it to my KOC council. Nothing else needs to be said. I challenge all other councils to match us. We are 13966.
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