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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OUR CITIZENS THAT JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE DOWN’S SYNDROME?

Well, THAT’s a no-brainer…..they’re mostly being killed before they can be born, of course. How is it, asks Patricia Bauer in the Washington Post that we refuse to notice when an entire class of human beings is subject to this vicious and lethal form of discrimination?

I have struggled with this question almost since our daughter Margaret was born, since she opened her big blue eyes and we got our first inkling that there was a full-fledged person behind them.

Whenever I am out with Margaret, I’m conscious that she represents a group whose ranks are shrinking because of the wide availability of prenatal testing and abortion. I don’t know how many pregnancies are terminated because of prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome, but some studies estimate 80 to 90 percent.

Imagine. As Margaret bounces through life, especially out here in the land of the perfect body, I see the way people look at her: curious, surprised, sometimes wary, occasionally disapproving or alarmed. I know that most women of childbearing age that we may encounter have judged her and her cohort, and have found their lives to be not worth living.

Does our society not know recent history? Or do we consider ourselves to be “better” than other humans, somehow superior to the 20th Century Germans, or the 21st Century Wahhabists? Do the American people believe that they can single out an entire class of human beings in order to deprive them of their right to life, and further believe that this is not going to spread? It ALWAYS spreads, folks. Either we protect ALL human life, or no one without power will be safe for the long term.

If we all accept Darwinism, then what is happening is of no particular moment—it’s just aligning the way we do things with the way things are, and there is not reason to do it differently. This point of view is most strongly presented by James Rachels in Created from Animals, the Moral Implications of Darwinism. In this well-argued, and very scary book, Rachels says that removing man from the privileged position he has given himself will result in our treating animals much better than we do today.

Now THERE is a man who knows no history…...or has chosen to ignore it.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/18 at 07:35 PM

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