This is bizarre.
KILLING newborns is morally the same as abortion and should be permissible if the mother wishes it, Australian philosophers have argued in an article that has unleashed a firestorm of criticism and forced the British Medical Journal to defend its publication.
Alberto Giubilini, from Monash University, and Francesca Minerva, from the University of Melbourne, say a foetus and a newborn are equivalent in their lack of a sense of their own life and aspiration. They contend this justifies what they call ”after-birth abortion” as long as it is painless, because the baby is not harmed by missing out on a life it cannot conceptualise.
About a third of infants with Down syndrome are not diagnosed prenatally, Drs Giubilini and Minerva say, and mothers of children with serious abnormalities should have the chance to end the child’s life after, as well as before, birth.
…
Steve Clarke, the chief executive of the advocacy group Down Syndrome NSW, said the paper was ”very theoretical”. ”I don’t think it does have any relevance or insight for the real world. It is so beyond our social mores and values that it is beyond the pale and I wouldn’t want to dignify it with any further comment,” he said.
KILLING newborns is morally the same as abortion and should be permissible if the mother wishes it, Australian philosophers have argued in an article that has unleashed a firestorm of criticism and forced the British Medical Journal to defend its publication.
Related articles
- Abortion author threatened (news.ninemsn.com.au)
- Slaughter newborn kids, say academics (thesun.co.uk)
It simply shows the logic of the pro-abortion argument. If life in the womb is cheap, so is life outside the womb. On the contrary, if people reject this idea because they value life outside the womb, they should also reject on demand abortion.
See also A modest proposal by Phil Ritchie.
Prayer After Birth (Acknowledgements and Apologies to Louis MacNeice).
I am now born: please hear me,
Let not the debt collectors,
Or the rights protectors,
Or the seditious insurrectors come near me.
I am now born, comfort me,
Else I fear that the human-folk may:
With clever lies debase me,
With bad science un-race me,
And with strong drugs erase me.
I am now born: please bestow me,
Among the dancing grass, babbling brooks,
Swaying trees and singing rooks,
Undiminished bright light of grace and truth,
To restore me.
I am now born, with lullabies lull me,
With warm cuddles mull me,
With deep love sustain me, and,
With silence, not gainsay me.