Posted on 07/13/2006 5:57:14 PM PDT by wagglebee
TORONTO, July 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an op ed intended by the Globe and Mail to be a sympathy piece, a Toronto woman, who identified herself as C. Smyth, told the story of her intention to abort her 19 week old daughter because the child was diagnosed by a geneticist as having a chromosomal disorder. The child, said Smyth, did not meet her and her husband’s standards or fulfill their dreams of having a child athelete.
She says their 19 week-old “miracle” is “tragically flawed:” the child, she is told will have a “significantly lower functioning than other children,” and the decision to abort was difficult. She cried when told the child was a girl.
40 year-old Smyth writes that she and her 45 year-old lawyer husband do not “feel capable of raising a severely disabled child. It would be different if we didn't have a choice, but we do.”
She describes herself and her husband as financially secure yuppies, professional, with university degrees, who own their own mortgage-free house, and who are fit, healthy and looking 10 years younger than their age.
Smyth writes, “Isn't it more cruel to bring a child burdened with so many disadvantages into the world?”
People with Down’s syndrome and other developmental disabilities and their families are becoming increasingly alarmed at the growing popularity of the eugenics philosophy typified by the Globe piece. Disabled rights groups have said that a societal attitude has grown that people with Down’s syndrome or other disabilities are better off dead.
Smyth bluntly admits that before she had undergone the IVF treatment that conceived her child, she and her husband had already ruled out the question of Down’s syndrome. “We had already decided if it was a Down syndrome baby (one in 30 chance for a mother over 40) we wouldn't continue.”
She assumes that everyone agrees that Down’s syndrome is so horrible that even her devoutly Christian mother would agree. “I thought even my church-going mother (who goes door-to-door collecting money for those who are anti-abortion, and their pro-life campaign) could forgive that.”
She describes the actual killing of her daughter equally bluntly. “On the third day, when the cervix has dilated, the doctor clears out the uterus: the evacuation.”
Letters to the editor have appeared in the Globe today decrying the slide towards a new eugenics. Jeremy Jay wrote from Victoria saying that the piece illustrates a shift in the attitudes towards abortion from a debate over the right to life to deciding which children are fit enough to deserve life.
Michael G. Ceci, said “her account gives no consolation to women struggling with the knowledge that their yet unborn child is developmentally disabled.” He pointed out that having this chromosomal disorder is not necessarily a life sentence for the mother, nor should it result in a death sentence for the child.
The piece appeared in the Globe and Mail at the time that the powerful Silent No More Campaign opened in Toronto, where women share their regret at having had an abortion. It also coincides with a Parliamentary effort by Liberal Party MP Paul Steckle to criminalize abortion after 20 weeks gestation.
It is also significant that the Globe produced this anonymous piece at the same time Health Canada is developing regulations under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act to define which genetic disorders are allowed to be screened in IVF embryos. Health Canada is calling for public input on the regulations (see contact information below.)
The Catholic Organization for Life and Family made a presentation to Health Canada pointing out the essential moral flaw of a genetic screening of embryos in IVF labs.
COLF wrote that preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is always a threat to the dignity of human life. “PGD inherently disrespects the dignity and worth of human life, since it is performed in order to select the most genetically perfect embryos while discarding those that are deemed undesirable.”
“Parents, doctors, and society become the evaluators of the future worth and quality of the lives of existing embryos, and the arbitrators of life or death for these embryonic human beings.”
Contact:
The Assisted Human Reproduction Implementation Office
Health Canada, AL 7002A
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9
Fax: (819) 934-1828
Email: ahr-pa@hc-sc.gc.ca
It sounds like she's also overcome her inferiority complex. God help the child who actually is born to these self-obsessed twits. They should just buy china dolls and set them up around the house, and rent a young looking adult to go to special events with them. She'd have a script and sit in the corner, except to come up every so often and say, "Gee, Mom, I want to be just like you when I grow up!" Then, they could drop her off at the acting agency, and never screw up a real child's life.
Estimates suggest 40 million people died as a result of banning DDT!
It was used here in Ireland years ago - it was even used in homes - I don't see any side affects!
I didn't realize malaria was a problem in Ireland. Bill did the "Environmental Science" merit badge at Boy Scout camp last month, and the materials mentioned "Silent Spring," so we've been talking about this stuff at home the last few weeks.
We're emphasizing the difference between sensible conservation - don't kill too many deer at a time, don't litter, reduce pollution if reasonable, etc. - and Environmentalism as a religion, in which tradeoffs and consequences don't matter.
There wasn't, it was just used as a general pesticide.
Bill did the "Environmental Science" merit badge at Boy Scout camp last month, and the materials mentioned "Silent Spring," so we've been talking about this stuff at home the last few weeks.
We're emphasizing the difference between sensible conservation - don't kill too many deer at a time, don't litter, reduce pollution if reasonable, etc. - and Environmentalism as a religion, in which tradeoffs and consequences don't matter.
Enviromentalism and eugenics seem to be inextricably linked, you often hear enviro-wackos wailing about 'over-population'.
It makes sense, I guess - the enviromentalist movenment seem to regard Humanity as a cancer on Mother Earth, so I suppose a far smaller population of enlightened 'ubermensch' would suit them just fine!
Methinks this couple should not be having children.
Sick. Very, very sick. And society has been there before in the 20th century--in Europe, it led to a horrific outcome.
As long as it includes them, personally. Environmentalists never seem to think *they* are a cancer on the earth, just other people. "Just enough of me - way too much of you," as P.J. O'Rourke put it.
LOL!! There's always some unheard quote from P.J.!
Nah, the cruelty would be burdening the child with such self-centered snob parents.
He's the source of many a great aphorism :-).
I agree!!
I also like his Swedish sounding name...
;)
I was shocked a dew years ago when a Baptist church goer told me the baby they were expecting was checked out and didn't have Downs, so they didn't have to abort it.
The way they said it it was obvious they'd have no problem killing the child if it didn't fit their description of normal.
I also know two people with children with Downs. Both say their children are the greatest blessing a person could have.
I was shocked a dew years ago when a Baptist church goer told me the baby they were expecting was checked out and didn't have Downs, so they didn't have to abort it.
The way they said it it was obvious they'd have no problem killing the child if it didn't fit their description of normal.
I also know two people with children with Downs. Both say their children are the greatest blessing a person could have.
:-). So many Scandinavians are named Patrick Joseph O'Rourke!
O'Rourke is a common name around Scania!! ;)
Well, yeah. You could have tried having a kid a few years ago, when you, young lady, were less likely to have one with birth defects. Or would that have [bleep]ed up your career path?
There are entirely too many stupid creeps walking the earth.
Sadly, abortion is seen by many as just another form of birth control or, as in this case, eugenics. Shades of Nazi Germany!
i know several parents of disabled children; all consider their kids absolute blessings and actually would not change them (beyond helping them reach their potential) for the world.
One of my little boys has a "sacral dimple." The condition can be merely cosmetic, as in his case, or in severe cases can be linked to Spina Bifida. I often wonder whether sacral dimples would cause prenatal tests for neural tube defects to come back elevated...and if so, whether some people end up aborting their babies as a result. So very sad.
What a sad and disgusting example of humanity this creature is, but attitudes like this were the inevitable outcome of the pro-abortion movement. She's simply sickening enough to vocalize the kind of thing so many abortion advocates feel.
MM
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