sábado, 21 de marzo de 2015

BioEdge: the latest news and articles about bioethics

BioEdge: the latest news and articles about bioethics

Bioedge





Hi there,
Today, March 21, is World Down Syndrome Day. Down Syndrome, also called Trisomy-21, occurs when people have a third copy of their 21st chromosome – hence the choice of March 21. In 2011 the United Nations passed a resolution supporting the celebration and declaring grandiloquently that:
People with Down syndrome, on an equal basis with other people, must be able to enjoy full and equal rights, both as children and adults with ‘opportunities’ and ‘choices’.
This is the theme of a series of very touching and entertaining YouTube interviews with Down Syndrome people around the world which were released this week. The organisers of the Day, a British charity called Down Syndrome International, say that people with Down Syndrome are discriminated against and are often denied the right to participate in civic life.
What’s odd about this complaint is that the biggest discrimination is not mentioned at all – the right to participate in life, period. Statistics vary, but an estimated 90% of women who know that they are pregnant with a Down Syndrome Child choose to abort it. Increasingly accurate prenatal testing services will ensure that fewer and fewer Down Syndrome Children enter the world, with the connivance of governments and doctors. In practice, the “choice” which Down Syndrome advocates are supporting is, sadly, the choice that adults make when they disabled children.
The generous and self-sacrificing work of Down Syndrome International must be acknowledged. But a bit of realism is in order, too. Why is it so reluctant to mention that Down Syndrome children are being denied their right to life?  
Bioedge

Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge




















This week in BioEdge
 
 









by Michael Cook | Mar 21, 2015
Gay icons war over "synthetic children".
 









by Xavier Symons | Mar 21, 2015
When is it ethically acceptable to Google your patient?
 









by Xavier Symons | Mar 21, 2015
It will set up its own pharmaceutical wing to identify new drug targets for both common and rare diseases.
 









by Xavier Symons | Mar 21, 2015
Poland's parliament will shortly debate draft legislation to regulate IVF -- a procedure that is de facto legal in the country.
 









by Michael Cook | Mar 21, 2015
Dr Wim Distelmans explains their misery.
 









by Xavier Symons | Mar 21, 2015
Almost one in 20 people in northern Belgium died using euthanasia in 2013.
 









by Michael Cook | Mar 21, 2015
NYTimes highlights anger of Diana Rehm.
 









by Michael Cook | Mar 21, 2015
Australian health authorities are investigating an Italian man who practiced as a gynaecologist and IVF expert in Melbourne for more than a decade.
 
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