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PR: Making a Date for 7 July 2007
27.06.2007
Recently, the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) called for consideration to be given to killing children who had been born with a disability, especially those who were premature. This appalling statement followed calls made by English doctors last year to stop ‘wasting resources’ being spent on keeping premature babies alive. When Alison Davis, a spina bifida sufferer who is a wheelchair user, subsequently went to the RCOG to present a petition opposing the infanticide of disabled babies, officials refused admittance to the leader of the No Less Human disability rights group. It seems that because Ms Davis wished to speak for unborn children, the normal courtesies extended towards wheelchair users were tossed aside.
At the same time a columnist in the Times declared her own abortion to have been ‘one of the least difficult decisions’ of her life and said she had given more thought to choosing new kitchen worktops. Another said that aborting an ‘unwanted baby’ was a compassionate thing to do and called it ‘one of the ultimate acts of good mothering’. The RCOG has also expressed dismay at the decline in the number of abortionists in the public health service, and Marie Stopes, the abortion providers, have called for pro-life doctors to be punished if they refuse to work with the abortion industry.
Shocking though these developments may seem they are, in fact, a natural progression of the abortion mentality which has been allowed to fester in British society for the past forty years. Little wonder that Cardinal Keith O’Brien has said in reference to the Scottish abortion rate that it is the equivalent of ‘two Dunblane massacres a day’. The killing of children is now so commonplace, such an everyday event, that the debate in the UK has moved on. What would have been unthinkable forty years ago – an entirely casual attitude towards ending the life of your own child, doctors killing premature babies, open warfare on disabled unborn citizens – is now not just possible but probable. When the weakest member of society is killed with abandon, then it is never long before others – the old, the disabled, the sick – also become targets. They too are ‘inconvenient’, ‘unwanted’ and a ‘waste of resources’; the last ‘reason’ particularly dreadful considering we are richer than we have ever been or could ever need to be.
The British experience, and the slide into the Culture of Death, could easily happen here in Ireland. The ‘D’ case showed just how quick the media and the abortion campaigners were to demand the right to kill disabled children when they thought the message would be favourably received. At that time, the presence of pro-life people at the courts reminded the Irish people that there were two human lives at stake – and that the baby so callously dehumanised by legal experts and journalists was a human being with the same rights as the rest of us.
On 7 July a pro-life rally will take place in Dublin, beginning at 1pm at the GPO in O’Connell Street. The organisers have asked people to make a special effort to attend. They want to celebrate the dignity and wonder of human life and to show support for an abortion-free Ireland. It’s a great idea and a chance for the whole family to come together to champion a pro-life culture. That evening, after Mass, Alison Davis will speak on the right-to-life of people with disabilities, in the Alexander Hotel. The event will also be used to launch a new leaflet from the Irish campaign LifeAbility, which points out that in the UK, more than 90 per cent of children with Down’s Syndrome or spina bifida are murdered before birth. Preventing Ireland from having that kind of culture is one of my main reasons for being there on 7 July. Make it a date.
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