Down Syndrome Screening –Search and Destroy

20th March 2016

The United Nations have declared that 21st April is a day to celebrate the International Day for Down Syndrome. All fine so far. But there is a problem – an international search campaign to screen for babies in the womb who have Down syndrome and then when found to destroy them.

As a result of this campaign 90 per cent of children with Down Syndrome are killed before birth. In New Zealand it is an estimated this figure is around 60 per cent. Here the killing is not quite so efficient as it is in Western Europe. It is abhorrent that this genocide crime against humanity is being condoned and paid for by our New Zealand government.

Right to Life believes that the screening programme violates Article 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, through the persecution of an identifiable group of the population namely those with Down Syndrome.

This search and destroy mission is also a violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We are practicing eugenics when it is decreed that only the perfect have a right to life. Persons with Down syndrome are valuable members of our community who have every right to be here.

The screening for Down Syndrome and other disabilities is funded by the government, offers the mother an abortion to kill the child before birth, should Downs or other disability be detected. The killing of the child is disguised by semantics. It is called a “termination of pregnancy” and “a reproductive health service” Abortion in New Zealand is deemed a core or essential health service, with unlimited funding. The government also funds the killing of the child by paying the abortionist and providing free hospital services for the abortion.

The Crimes Act allows for children who are seriously disabled to be killed before birth. The Act states; That there is a substantial risk that the child, if born, would be so physically or mentally abnormal as to be seriously handicapped .. HOWEVER…,

The World Health Organisation classifies Down syndrome as a mild to moderate disability. Why then are Certifying Consultants and abortionists authorising and performing abortions that are unlawful?

Right to Life, wrote to the Abortion Supervisory Committee in 2010, requesting that they protect the right to life of unborn children with Down Syndrome and asked, Does the Committee accept that Down syndrome is a mild to moderate disability and as such does not reach the threshold of a serious handicap as required by s 187A [1] [aa] of the Crimes Act 1961.

The Committee replied “The Abortion Supervisory Committee has no view on this matter. It is not the Committee’s role to determine the level of disability associated with Down syndrome.”

Right to Life asks, whose role then is it to protect the lives of our precious children with Down Syndrome?

Right to Life supports the Saving Down Syndrome organization, by calling upon the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, his United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the Commissioner for Human Rights from the Council of Europe, Mr Nils Muižnieks and the European Commissioner for the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Mr Frans Timmermans, to express 3 requirements to member States:

· Stop systematic prenatal screening programs that target Down syndrome and deliberately encourage abortion as part of public health programs.
· Regulate the introduction of prenatal genetic testing, based on the principles defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the Oviedo Convention (articles 11 and 12) and in the EU charter of Fundamental Rights (articles 2, 3, 21 and 26), and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (articles 5, 10, 14, 15, 23, 25).
· ·Allow the use of genetic testing solely to enhance human care and well-being, and not to discriminate against people on the basis of their genetic predisposition.

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