Abortion of the Disabled is Barbarism

I want to limit the scope of my argument because aborting children with Down syndrome is Eugenics. If you haven't heard of Eugenics, it simply is the removal of undesirable people from society. Who is undesirable can change from one culture to the next, but consistently, people with disabilities have been seen as undesirables all the way back to when people started to record histories. Children born with disabilities were often left to the gods; essentially they were left to die of exposure to the elements or animals. Eugenics is the sanitized equivalent of allowing children to die of exposure because they are flawed. Abortion of individuals with Down syndrome is only part of the goal in Eugenics and it always has higher aspirations to do more. If a society does not rid itself of Eugenics, deciding who should live and who shouldn't, this society is as evil as one which institutionalized slavery or religious persecution.

As government policy, Eugenics works through abortion, assisted suicide, sterilization, or murder. We tend to think about Eugenics as a problem which existed in World War II Germany, but Eugenics was also a policy of the American government. The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, argued for Eugenics to rid the world of the "feebleminded" and the "physically and mentally disabled." In addition to her arguments against the disabled, she also argued for eliminating children who came from minority groups.

Some things should be outlawed because they are barbaric and evil, whether people will practice them or not. When people argue that we need legal abortion because mothers will seek abortions whether it is legal or not, they are arguing for legalizing a behavior not based on the morality of the behavior, but because it will be done. This is a terrible argument for the legalization of any behavior by saying people will do it even if it is outlawed.

For example, If you outlaw Christianity, people will still practice it. However, is it moral to outlaw Christianity or moral to disobey the government and practice it? Should people continue to practice Christianity if it is outlawed? Why should they? What makes it moral for the government to outlaw it? What makes it moral for the Christian to defy the government? It is even fair to ask if Christianity is moral. Maybe it's not and should be outlawed. But if it is outlawed, as it is in many places in the world, then maybe the immorality lies with the nation which has outlawed it. We can have this argument and I am confident in the conclusions which would demonstrate that outlawing it is immoral and practicing Christianity is moral when it is outlawed. We can demonstrate nations which outlaw Christianity almost always end up committing terrible crimes against their own people and not just Christians. Abortion doesn't stand up to the same scrutiny. Outlawing it doesn't make make it moral. It remains immoral to practice even outlawed or legalized. A nation which outlaws abortion to preserve life isn't a nation seeking to harm its citizens who want an abortion or who want others to have an abortion nor is this nation likely to commit terrible atrocities against other citizens. A nation which seeks to preserve life is looking to protect the life of as many of its citizens as possible.

Maybe another example, such as slavery, can help explain why Abortion is Barbarism whether it is outlawed or not. Some of our darkest pagan impulses remain in our culture despite the influence of Christianity. Abortion is one. Banning Freedom of Religion is another.

Slavery was outlawed and yet we know it is practiced by a small minority of people, even in this country, despite its clear immorality and the steep price that was paid to end it. We made slavery an illegal practice and our government refuses to endorse it and instead penalizes it. Should I argue slavery is moral to practice and it is immoral to outlaw because a small group of people will always practice slavery? This is the same structure to the argument for abortion for people with down syndrome. Because some people will terminate their pregnancies no matter what the law says, we should legalize abortion. Legalizing abortion/eugenics gives government agencies, medical institutions, and even religion the power to argue to mothers to terminate their pregnancies because their child will be born with a disability.

Abortion of individuals with down syndrome falls into the same ethical and moral considerations as slavery and religious persecution. There are some moral issues which turn a society into a barbarism if the society engages in them. The three above are some, but not all of the issues a culture or nations faces. If Eugenics is outlawed, it is moral for the government to do so and moves the nation away from barbarism. People with a disability deserve to live no matter what their disability is. If people practice abortion of individuals with down syndrome, they aren't being moral on any grounds. They are practicing eugenics. If the state practices it, then it is far worse when than when a person breaks the law. Aborting children with an extra chromosome is immoral and the state has an obligation not to institutionalize immoral practices such as slavery, religious persecution, and eugenics. Laws affirming slavery, persecution, and eugenics diminishes us all and defiles our society into something barbaric and evil. A society which outlaws slavery, persecution, and eugenics doesn't eliminate these horrible injustices, which will live on the edge of our world in the margins, but rather provides judicial processes in which to free victims, penalize the guilty, and provide a model of behavior for most of our society. Eugenics is part of a political philosophy and isn't simply about the mother's choice and comfort, but rather an ethic about society at large. Eugenics demands a society where some are elite and some are not. Those who are not elite and not in power, must be controlled, weeded, and culled. Abortion of individuals with down syndrome is only part of the goal in Eugenics and it always has higher aspirations to do more. If a society does not rid itself of Eugenics, deciding who should live and who shouldn't, this society is as evil as one which institutionalizes slavery or religious persecution. No society can tolerate slavery and be just. No society can tolerate Eugenics and be just. Our friends, families, and children who have down syndrome or any other disability must be legally protected if we expect to have a just society.

I know the temptation is to focus on the individual mother and how she will be affected. However, look at the argument applied to slavery. This single woman should be able to choose to have a slave because it will improve her quality of life. Slavery should be safe, legal, and rare. Do you want to destroy the life of this young mother, limiting her economic future? Slavery is a choice. Her slave, her choice. If abortion of a child with a disability can be argued this way, so can slavery.

This is why we can't reduce the argument about slavery or eugenics down to one person, but instead must look at society at large. What does it say about our nation if we outlaw slavery and yet we don't punish people who are involved in the sex trafficking? What does it say about our nation if we allow legal abortion of individuals with disabilities and don't punish the people involved in Eugenics? There are some things which are so evil, so foul, they must be given no tolerance in the law. There are some things which degrade a nation and degrade a society so completely, it returns us into barbarism. We are little better than Romans and our smart phones and cars are not a mark of civilization. The mark of civilization is ending barbarism in a culture through Christian and Jewish principles given to us by a creator who holds us accountable for how we treat people He made in His image. The world is far less safe when the barbarians are making the laws.

Legal Abortion of the disabled is a barbarism. It says that the society is more concerned with perfection and utopia than reality. Aborting the disabled destroys the image of God in all its diversity.