Right to Die

Abortion has become, for some, a casual, everyday practice. So much so that recently a landmark decision was reached in what is known as the Perruche case, establishing in law a disabled child’s “right not to be born”!

Last November a handful of French judges ruled on “a plea lodged by the families of three children—all born with physical deformities—who claimed that if doctors had not failed to spot the disabilities in the womb the pregnancies would have been terminated” (Agence France Presse, July 13).

And it hasn’t taken long for the highly disturbing results of that fated ruling to be felt. Recently, meeting exceptionally in plenary session, the court’s judges ruled that the precedent set by the Perruche case—in which a mentally-retarded boy was awarded damages because he had not been aborted—remained valid “as long as a causal link can be established with an error committed by a doctor.”

This gives rise to the danger of doctors actually being encouraged to recommend abortions at the slightest hint of a disability in order to avoid the risk of being sued later for malpractice!

As science makes another stab at playing with life and death, how dangerous it has become for some of the unborn, who, through no fault of their own, don’t “meet the grade.”