By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Recently there has been an awakening concerning the eugenic attitudes of past leaders. Many 20th century leaders, in particular, believed that the lives of people with disabilities had less value.
Today’s society thinks that it is more enlightened and more supportive of people with disabilities. Yet the study I am writing about today indicates that lethally eugenic attitudes towards newborns with disabilities not only continues but is disguised as compassion.
The study titled: Healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards termination of pregnancy at viable stage primarily concerns late-term abortion. This article addresses the response to the question on euthanasia of neonatal infants.
Background:
In 2018, a questionnaire was sent to 117 Neonatal Intensive Care medical professionals in the Flanders region of Belgium with 92 responses. The respondents to the questionnaire were provided anonymity.
One of the questions concerned (euthanasia) lethally injecting newborns with disabilities. The study found that:
Of all healthcare professionals, 89.1% (93.6% of physicians) agree that in the event of a serious (non-lethal) neonatal condition, administering drugs with the explicit intention to end neonatal life is acceptable. About the same proportion (87.9%) agrees that Belgian law should be changed to make this possible.
It is deeply concerning that nearly every Belgian medical professional who works with a neonatal intensive care unit supports euthanasia of newborns with disabilities. The respondents also agreed that Belgian law should allow euthanasia of newborns when in fact it was technically legalized in 2014. The first official child euthanasia in Belgium was reported in September 2016.
However eugenic attitudes towards people with disabilities are not limited to babies born with disabilities.
Catalina Devandas, who is the first Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities for the UN Human Rights Council, published a statement, in March 2020, concerning her report the New Eugenics and ableism in medical practise.
Devandas expressed her concerns on the impact of euthanasia for persons with disabilities.
“If assisted dying is made available for persons with health conditions or impairments, but who are not terminally ill, a social assumption could be made that it is better to be dead than to live with a disability,” the expert warned.
“People have the right to live and to die with dignity, but we cannot accept that people choose to end their lives because of social stigma, isolation or lack of access to personal assistance or disability-related services.”
Devandas also express concerned about medical developments that she referred to as the new eugenics.
The UN expert explained that developments in gene therapy, genetic engineering and prenatal screening experienced enormous growth, increasing our power to repair the body and prevent disease, but cautioned about “eliminating” human characteristics deemed undesirable.
“People with disabilities are genuinely concerned that these developments could result in new eugenic practices and further undermine social acceptance and solidarity towards disability – and more broadly, towards human diversity,” she said.
The euthanasia lobby declares that they support “voluntary” euthanasia, but obviously when a newborn is lethally injected, it is a case of involuntary euthanasia.
Eugenics and euthanasia go hand-in-hand. The average person who supports euthanasia does not base their support on eugenic attitudes, but the euthanasia lobby has exploited fear of suffering to expand the scope of killing.
Editor’s note. This appeared on Mr. Schadenberg’s blog and is reposted with permission.