Resist pressure to abort and become a "genetic outlaw"

Zenit has an absolutely horrifying article about the modern eugenics movement. Focusing on Australia and Great Britain, the article states that not only is prenatal testing increasingly used to identify and kill children who are not genetically "perfect", but in some instances women are deliberately not told that the recommended "induced birth" will basically kill the child. Such women are not given information about the child's disability and how other parents cope. In these cases, there is no much-touted "right to choose". It is all about death for the imperfect.

One-third of obstetricians in England and Wales require a woman to agree to abort a child found to have a problem pre-natally.

Melinda Tankard Reist has written a book called, "Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics" (Spinifex Press) which tells the story of many women who went on to deliver their babies against the recommendation of health "professionals." She calls such women, "genetic outlaws" because they dare to resist the increasing pressure to kill preborn children who are imperfect.

I am currently reading an excellent book, "The Hidden Pope--The untold story of a lifelong friendship that is changing the relationship between Catholics and Jews". It is a very revealing look at the everyday life of both Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II) and his childhood friend Jerzy Kluger who is Jewish. They grew up together in Wadowice, Poland in the years surrounding World War II.

Reading about the incredible horror of the Nazi eugenics program and its effects on people's lives makes me realize that the modern eugenics movement is not a harmless nod to good science, but as secretive and under-the-radar screen of many of us as the Nazi "solution" was to many then. Many knew, many did not, and many did not want to know. The same is true right now. The pressure to abort children who are imperfect is prevalent and going on right in front of us. Those who manage to deliver their children could possibly face increasing societal pressure as this killing becomes commonplace.

As the generation who lived through the Nazi horrors dies out, those of us left are under increasing danger of forgetting how horrible eugenics is. We must fight against the "eugenics mentality" that exists today lest we end up needing to fight the same type of fight that our parents and grandparents had to in World War II. It is a small leap in the minds of some from killing genetically "imperfect" preborn children, to killing whatever category of out-of-the-womb person that they decide does not deserve life.