Since reading this thread initially it has played on my mind so much so that I feel the need to post some of my thoughts on the matter.

As a civilised and compassionate society how can we not see that the strong must protect the weak?
Are people to be treated as instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons?

Uncompromising respect for human life is fundamental and is what enables or should enable individuals to live together in security and harmony.
Our society is becoming one of strangers, obsessed with personal rights and severing the ties of duty, compassion, and love to the weak and unwanted.
It has become a culture which favours those who can assert themselves, their power and rights etc. which in some cases leaves an inhospitable, even dangerous, place for those too weak to compete effectively in this contest of rights---the young, the elderly, the dying, the handicapped.

The widespread availability of prenatal diagnosis has altered the way people consider mentally handicapped people. The birth of a child with a chromosomal anomaly is now widely considered as a medical error and in certain countries, doctors face lawsuits because they failed to diagnose the "condition" in utero. People now regard persons with a handicap as someone who should not be there. In some cases the person themselves know that had their condition been diagnosed in utero, they would not have been allowed to be born. They have become true survivors of the search and destroy missions performed in our hospitals.

We have a neighbouring family here whoâ??s daughter was born with Downâ??s syndrome. At the time of her birth there was much anguish and sorrow surrounding her condition. People didnâ??t congratulate them, they didnâ??t know how. Yes this child has brought immeasureable joy to them, us and everyone sheâ??s touched. Sheâ??ll never hold down a job or live what we would consider a â??normal lifeâ?? but holy shit can she love. It absolutely bursts out of her. Her mother worries about her future though, who will protect and love her after theyâ??ve gone?

A few years ago a woman drove off the pier in a Dublin coastal town with her son in the passenger seat. He was a Downâ??sSyndrome child and she had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Who will protect and love him after Iâ??ve gone? Was probably her question too.

Iâ??m too depressed to write anymore, later