Monday, March 29, 2004
Canada sliding towards Nazi eugenics, says disabled academic
By encouraging parents to abort disabled foetuses, the Canadian health care system is sliding towards Nazi-style eugenics, says a professor of social work at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia.
Tanis Doe, who is deaf and confined to a wheelchair, says that "women are expected to -- pressured to -- abort pregnancies when foetal disability is diagnosed. But minimal support is available to raise children with disabilities. Eugenics was practised in the UK, Canada and the United States before the rise of Hitler. So what has happened since then is a continuation of the sterilisation practices that we have only recently acknowledged." She noted that nine out of ten foetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted in the US and Canada.
By encouraging parents to abort disabled foetuses, the Canadian health care system is sliding towards Nazi-style eugenics, says a professor of social work at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia.
Tanis Doe, who is deaf and confined to a wheelchair, says that "women are expected to -- pressured to -- abort pregnancies when foetal disability is diagnosed. But minimal support is available to raise children with disabilities. Eugenics was practised in the UK, Canada and the United States before the rise of Hitler. So what has happened since then is a continuation of the sterilisation practices that we have only recently acknowledged." She noted that nine out of ten foetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted in the US and Canada.
