New Zealand Ministry of Health sued in International Criminal Court for eugenics violations

For immediate release

A group of parents of children with Down syndrome have lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the Governments(of New Zealand) screening programme for Down syndrome.

Group spokesman Mike Sullivan said the group has applied to the Office of the Prosecutor under the provisions of Article 15.1 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Court has confirmed that the application is being considered.

The Prosecutor has been asked to investigate and intervene in the Ministry of Health's antenatal screening programme, as it persecutes against people with Down syndrome through the prevention of their births.

Evidence was presented to the Court's Prosecutors showing the screening programme prevents around 75% of births of people with Down syndrome in New Zealand.

The programme is promoted and funded by the government at a cost of $9.4M per year, or around $75,000 per unborn child diagnosed with Down syndrome.

The complaint names the Minister of Health as responsible for the programme under his statutory role. Article 27 of the Rome Statute provides that a role as a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility.

Mr Sullivan explained the complaint presents evidence obtained under the Official Information Act. This includes details the previous Labour Minister of Health had foresight that the consequences
of the screening programme would be the prevention of births of people with Down syndrome via selective abortion, leading to a significant reduction in their numbers. ``The current Minister of Health is continuing with the programme in the knowledge that the vast majority of pregnancies with Down syndrome will be aborted and has consistently refused to address any of our concerns,'' Mr Sullivan said.

The group who lodged the complaint is comprised of 37 concerned parents, siblings and supporting organisations, including a number of doctors.

The groups position statement is genetic screening must not be used to prevent the birth of unborn children with Down syndrome, as this is discrimination.

The group recognises genetic testing may help some parents prepare for the birth of a child with Down syndrome, in which case it should only be only directed towards safeguarding or healing the unborn child.

For further
information contact:

Mike Sullivan, 09
436 1498 0r 021 406 266
mike.b.sullivan@xtra.co.nz

Mike Sullivan loves our kids!

Read my blog post over at National Right to Life News about Mike Sullivan, the engineer from New Zealand who is suing  his government over eugenic abortion in the International Criminal Court. I hope this idea catches on, it means that this could be done in every nation which has signed onto the Rome Treaty and has universal pre-natal testing for Down syndrome and other anomalies.

Colleen Carroll Campbell: A dangerous perfectionism

Read this eloquent column in the St Louis Dispatch by EWTN series host Colleen Carroll Campbell on the new pre-natal screening tests for Down syndrome.

She says, Count Eileen Haupt and Leticia Velasquez, two mothers of daughters with Down syndrome, among the latter. The pair recently founded an organization known as Keep Infants with Down Syndrome, or KIDS. Their goal: to encourage expectant parents of Down-diagnosed babies by spreading the word about research advances and the joy these special-needs children can bring.The potential audience for their message is vast. Today, many women are bearing children later in life and thus facing higher odds of a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis. (A 20-year-old woman has a one-in-2,000 chance of conceiving a baby with Down syndrome; for a 40-year-old woman, that chance is one in 100.)

  Colleen Carroll Campbell: A dangerous perfectionism

Down syndrome Dad fights eugenic abortion in New Zealand

 Following TV3's 60 Minutes(on New Zealand television) documentary on June 12 “Down but not out'', parents of children with Down syndrome announced they will lodge a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the Governments screening programme for Down syndrome.

The basis of the parents' complaint is that the Government's antenatal screening programme specifically targets foetuses with Down syndrome and other rare genetic conditions, through the prevention of their births.

 The 60 Minutes documentary was introduced with the statement “people with Down syndrome may soon disappear from the face of the earth.'' 60 Minutes revealed the new screening programme was introduced without public consultation and the Ministry of Health “did not bother'' asking the opinion of anyone who has Down syndrome, about the programme.

Mike Sullivan, father of three-year-old Rebecca Sullivan who has Down syndrome, featured in the 60 Minutes documentary. He said people with Down syndrome and other disabilities are human beings who live full and rewarding lives. “They must be treated on an equal basis with other members of our society, without any form of discrimination.''

De-Anne Jensen, mother of three with her oldest son having Down syndrome also featured on 60 Minutes. “Government documents say it costs less not to have children with Down syndrome around, so it looks like they are working to do away with Down syndrome. It's cheaper; you don't have to pay for the special needs things. The Government and medical experts are putting a monetary value on our baby's lives,'' Mrs Jensen said.

 The parents' complaint references Government Cabinet papers obtained under the Official Information Act stating the outcomes of the programme will be a reduction in the number of births of
people with Down syndrome, with around 90% of unborn children diagnosed with the condition being terminated. The persecution of an identifiable group of the civilian population through the prevention of births is specifically prohibited under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, to which New Zealand is signatory.

The group is supported by parents with other disabilities that are being similarly targeted and other organisations who support their concerns.

The groups position statement is that genetic screening must not be used to prevent the birth of unborn children with Down syndrome, or cause harm to any unborn child.

The group recognises genetic testing may help some parents prepare for the birth of a child with Down syndrome. Any testing must respect the life and integrity of the unborn child, cause no harm, be only directed towards safeguarding or healing the unborn child and be presented in a way that does not discriminate against people with Down syndrome or any disability. Any testing must be developed in full engagement with those with Down syndrome.

For further
information contact:

Mike Sullivan, 09
436 1498 0r 021 406 266 mike.b.sullivan@xtra.co.nz

Mandatory pre-natal testing to be considered in France

My friends at the Lejeune Foundation in France are calling for all those who oppose the eugenic abortion of babies with trisomy 21 and live in France to sign a petition opposing this practice. France already has an abortion rate of 96% once Down syndrome is detected through pre-natal testing, universal testing would be catastrophic to this population and to human rights in general, setting off a possible chain reaction throughout Europe. Below is a translation of the original letter from the Foundation Lejeune.

On May 25 and 26 of this year, the National Assembly [the lower house in the French Parliament] will resume its debates and votes concerning the proposed bioethics law.  

If the deputies follow the recommendations of the Senate and the Special Committee on Bioethics, the pendulum will swing, in the next few days, and France will implement a policy of eugenics with regard to infants with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome.  

Because all of us are vulnerable and called to show solidarity with those who are a little more so, we cannot accept this or let it happen.  

Please act today by signing the petition that we will send to the legislators and by sending this message to everyone on your e-mail address list.

We thank every one of you for your irreplaceable support of this petition drive.  

 The Staff of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation

WHY A PETITION AGAINST EUGENICS?

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Because the legislators in both Houses of the French Parliament are currently debating the contents of the forthcoming bioethics law and are preparing to legalize systematic screening for Trisomy 21.  

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Because 96% of the babies diagnosed before birth as having Trisomy 21 are eliminated, some of them as late as the ninth month of pregnancy.  Instead of expanding this search-and-destroy mission aimed at infants with Trisomy 21, we should instead take advantage of the future bioethics law to put a stop to the current trends!  

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Because obliging the doctor to propose prenatal diagnosis to all expectant mothers would lead us from a de facto situation of eugenics to a legal system of eugenics that completely contradicts the Civil Code (art. 16-4).  

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Because infants with Trisomy 21, like all of us, want to live, to love and to be loved.  

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Because the degree to which a society is civilized is measured by its ability to protect its weakest members.

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Because all of us are vulnerable and called to show solidarity with those who are a little more so.  

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Because, with technological advances, it will very soon be possible to detect many other disorders or predispositions to diseases. The logic of search-and-destroy will be extended to an ever-increasing number of babies.  

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Because by choosing to eliminate the sick instead of trying to cure their illnesses, science and medicine abandon their purpose and deny themselves.  

The purpose of this petition is to denounce the eugenicist ideology informing the bioethics law, which is clearly expressed by its intention to screen systematically for Trisomy 21, and to challenge our legislators concerning the blatant contradiction between the Civil Code and current eugenics practices.  

If your share our concern and our willingness to fight for greater respect for the lives of the most vulnerable, then sign this petition, which we will forward to the members of Parliament and to the French government.  

Life is the most important political issue for Man:  the members of Parliament, like the future candidates for the Presidency of the French Republic, cannot ignore this.  They must recognize the determination of the French electorate on this subject [and also realize that people of good will in other countries will be watching carefully how they deal with this latest threat to fundamental human rights].  

SIGN THE PETITION HERE. 

Autism gene found; will abortion follow?

A new marker has been found which indicates the possibility of autism and other impairments in an unborn baby. Will they soon be targeted for destruction like our children with Down syndrome children? Kurt Kondrich, author of "Making a Case for Life" asks this important question in his Renew America article.

The "risk gene" is identified as CNTNAP2, and according to the article "About one-third of all people carry the variant of the CNTNAP2 gene that is associated with a heightened risk of autism, as well as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia and other language difficulties." As I read this latest genetic update I noticed that the phrase "risk gene" was mentioned no fewer than 7 times.

Since 90%+ of all children diagnosed prenatally with Down syndrome using genetic testing are aborted my question to the researchers and medical community would be "What will the identification of this "risk gene" be used for, and will this prenatal diagnosis be offered to expectant parent?"

We hope not, but experience has taught us that those who view a perfect child as an entitlement will use this marker as a means to weed out imperfect children, decimating the Autim population. This has been the research goal of Autism Speaks, a well funded Autism organization.Look at this site; The Autism Genocide Clock, which estimates that in 4 years those with Autism will be targeted like our kids with Down syndrome are.

IDSC for Life on eugenics

Diane has written a powerful post on how the Clinton Administration appointee for Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders viewed aborting children with Down syndrome as an imporvement.
“Abortion,” she said, “has had an important, and positive, public- health effect,” in that it has reduced “the number of children afflicted with severe defects.” As evidence, the future surgeon general cited this statistic: “The number of Down’s Syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64 percent lower than it would have been without legal abortion.”
So, killing those with extra chomosomes is an improvement, Dr Mengele, er, Dr Elders?
Can we expect any better from the Obama adminstration?
Read the entire post here.