no_more_700_club

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...bilities_un_dc

BolshyFaker

The UN is a big organisation, it writes a lot of stuff, a lot of which gets ignored. Now I'm not trying to do it down, because I personally couldn't be more enthusiastic about it, but if we looked at everything that got written in draft then we'd be considering an awful lot of crap among which would be looney suggestions like this one.

Sheesh, and I thought the best time to abort something was when it had severe disabilities!

ZouPrime

Any way I try to think about this, it just doesn't make any sense. I don't understand how someone could say that and be in favor of abortion in general at the same time. If you accept the fact that abortion is moral on the basis that fetus aren't persons, than how can any fetus with a known disability suddendly represents "discrimination"??

It's not that I agree or disagree with Don MacKay opinion, it's just that I don't even understand where it's comming from.

NZAmoeba

Because if this world needs something, its more vegetables trapped inside a twisted shell of a body?

This man makes my country look dumb.... =(

Octavia

Tempted as I am to agree, it's a very broad subject. For instance, my mother had an abortion many years ago, because the foetus was so malformed it couldn't have survived birth. Seems to me that's an eminently suitable reason for abortion. Let's assume, though, for the sake of assumption, that a test was available that showed whether or not a baby was deaf. Is that disability grounds for abortion?

I think this is one of those things which is going to be impossible to legislate. It's got to be up to the parents to decide, IMHO. I would also add that I think it's up to the parents to decide after the birth as well, in case of major deformity.

Besides, legislation by the UN doesn't mean ratification. Any country that doesn't agree doesn't have to sign up. I mean seriously - can you see NZ signing on to this? Because I can't.

Rhea

Yes. Because "I don't feel like being pregnant" is a suitable grounds for abortion. It is incomprehensible that a woman with a healthy fetus can elect to have an abortion, but a woman with a disabled one cannot. So now she doesn't want to be a mother *AND* she has a more challenging baby? Makes zero sense. As long as it's okay to abort a healthy fetus, what possible reason could there be to deny abortion for non healthy ones?

Octavia

But the question isn't health, it's disability - whether a woman should be forced to continue pregnancy with a child that is disadvantaged in respect to other children.

That's a very broad category - look at female infanticide in China. Those babies are perceived as being disadvantaged because they're not male - should abortion be tolerated for that "disability"?

But I'm splitting hairs here. To be brutally honest, abortion is an issue that I have problems with. I agree with you in the sense that the choice in these cases should be the mother's, or the parents. As I said, my own mother had an abortion (of a much wanted baby) because it was severely deformed - in her place I would do the same thing. But I think we're kidding ourselves if we make no difference between levels of disability. On the other hand, I can't honestly say that I think "I don't feel like being pregnant" is a good enough reason.

I think it's a stupid law that they're trying to draft, myself. And your point is well-taken; it leads to an inconsistent position, and that's just silly. But I can see why it might be a sensitive issue for some disabled people.

xorbie

This is bullshit. The whole point of an abortion is that the mother (and possibly father) are not in a situation in which they feel ready to raise a child and therefor it would harm all parties involved to go through with the abortion. Giving birth to a more difficult child to raise wouldn't help this in the least.

Moreover, either a fetus has rights or it does not. The right not to be discriminated against is one of those. This makes no sense, no matter which way you look at it.

Dirac_Delta

People are losing touch with reality. Now a fetus with a disabilitie is more valuable than a healthy fetus? :huh:

Zeda

Pure craziness.

While one may well have the mental, physical, and monetary resources to raise a healthy baby, the equation can change greatly when considering a child with special needs.

I have greatly enoyed the privilege of raising three children, I am not sure I would have had the emotional resources to raise a severely disabled one. And even if I could have coped with that, I would never had had the extra money it would have cost.