National screening unit clinical director Dr
Jane O’Hallahan says pregnancy screening, which in Danielle Bolt’s case meant being told to ‘terminate’ her Down syndrome baby (April 21), is “optional”.
Actually what happens is, according to the
Ministry of Health, that “all pregnant women are advised” of screening. Now why
would the Health Department advise of it, if they didn’t think it advisable?
Naturally, many women ‘advised’ of such an ‘option’ by the Health Department
infer that it’s in their best interests and go ahead.
The NSU talks tendentiously about ‘risk’. What
risk? The risk of a beautiful baby like Noa? Or do they really mean the risk
of cost to the government incurred by life-long care for such a
beautiful human being?
The NSU admits that women whose screening
defines them as at ‘increased risk’ (of a beautiful baby like Noa!), who are
recommended to undergo a diagnostic test, run the very real risk of iatrogenic
miscarriage. And women who’ve already had a disabled child are ‘offered’ a
referral to ‘a specialist obstetrician’. No prizes for guessing what their
‘speciality’ is.
Is eugenics the Next Big Thing? We would do well to remember that the
Holocaust began with Hitler killing the disabled.
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