Pro-lifers have expressed dismay following reports that nearly all babies with Down’s syndrome are being aborted in Iceland.
Only one or two people, on average, are born with Down’s syndrome in the country each year, according to a report by America’s CBS News network.
Kari Stefansson, the founder of a genetic group named deCODE Genetics, which looks at the genomes of Icelanders, told the network: “We have basically eradicated, almost, Down’s syndrome from our society.”
The American actress Patricia Heaton tweeted in response to the story: “Iceland isn’t actually eliminating Down syndrome. They’re just killing everybody that has it. Big difference.”
Nearly 100 per cent of women in Iceland choose abortion following a positive prenatal test for Down’s syndrome.
Other countries, according to CBS, “aren’t lagging too far behind”. “The United States has an estimated [abortion] rate for Down syndrome of 67 per cent (1995-2011); in France it is 77 per cent (2015); and Denmark, 98 per cent (2015),” it said. The figures relate to the proportion of babies aborted after a positive prenatal test for the syndrome.
Prenatal testing is not compulsory in Iceland, but the option is presented to all women using healthcare services.
Hulda Hjartardottir, head of the Prenatal Diagnosis Unit and Landspitali University Hospital in Iceland, said: “We try to do as neutral counselling as possible, but some people would say that just offering the test is pointing you towards a certain direction”.
Bishops clash with Morales over fate of indigenous land
Church leaders in Bolivia have condemned a new law that strips protection from a national park and indigenous territory.
The measure, signed into law by President Evo Morales, opens the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory, or TIPNIS, to road building and other development.
Bishop Eugenio Coter of Pando, an Amazonian region, said: “The government doesn’t listen to the people, especially not indigenous people. Knowing that the indigenous people of TIPNIS have expressed their opposition to this highway, the government is imposing its will on the people who live in the territory.”
In 2011 indigenous people from the territory staged a two-month protest march to La Paz to stop plans to build a highway through the protected area. The Morales administration then placed TIPNIS under strict protection. The new law reverses that.
After Church leaders’ criticism, a government minister accused the Church of being complicit in drug trafficking in the area. Archbishop Oscar Aparicio Cespedes of Cochabamba said the accusation was “meant to intimidate”.
Cardinal: drug killings must end
Cardinal Luis Tagle has called for an end to “the waste of human lives” caused by the drugs trade in the Philippines.
His statement was read out at Masses in Manila after a surge in killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. At least 76 were shot dead in a week.
Cardinal Tagle appealed to the consciences of those involved in the drugs trade, as well as those “who kill even the helpless”, to stop the carnage.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.