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Facing Down Eugenicists, Man with Down Syndrome Justifies His Own Life

Imagine feeling the need to justify your existence before a Congressional subcommittee. From the Daily Beacon story:

Frank Stephens, a man with Down syndrome and an advocate for those with the genetic disorder, told a congressional committee on Wednesday that his life is “worth living” as he criticized those who believe fetuses with Down syndrome should be aborted…

Iceland is close to eliminating Down syndrome births through abortion. Since the introduction of prenatal screening tests to the country in the early 2000s, close to 100 percent of women whose pregnancies test positive for Down syndrome have chosen to have an abortion.

“Whatever you learn today, please remember this: I am a man with Down syndrome and my life is worth living,” Stephens told lawmakers on the committee.

“I completely understand that the people pushing this particular ‘final solution’ are saying that people like me should not exist,” Stephens said. “That view is deeply prejudiced by an outdated idea of life with Down syndrome.”

A pogrom has been launched that seeks to wipe these gentle and loving people off the face of the earth through eugenic abortion, non-treatment of Down babies with serious medical conditions, and perhaps someday if people like Peter Singer get their way, infanticide.

Stephens asks: “Is there really no place for us in the world?” What an anti-human culture we are creating, what a paucity of love.

Cross-posted at The Corner.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.

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abortionanti-humanismCongressDaily BeaconDown syndromeeugenicsFrank Stephensgenetic disordergeneticsIcelandinfanticidelifelovePeter Singerpogrompregnancyprenatal screening