http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/abortion-or-eugenics-masquerading-as-choice/2006/03/03/1141191854034.html



Abortion or eugenics masquerading as choice?

By Rachel Gibson

March 4, 2006

A new book claims aborting the less-than-perfect has Nazi undertones.

ALISON Streeter was 10 weeks pregnant when a friend brought her son
around to play. The little boy had a rash but she thought nothing of
it.

When she later discovered the boy had German measles, caused by the
rubella virus, she was distraught. Ms Streeter, from Sydney, has a rare
resistance to the rubella vaccine.

What followed was a period of extreme stress as she waited on test
results to determine whether her unborn child had contracted congenital
rubella syndrome.

In the worst case, the syndrome can cause a baby to be born blind, deaf
and brain-damaged.

But Ms Streeter's anxiety about her child quickly escalated as she
confronted bullying and pressure from a genetic counsellor to abort her
child before the test results were known. She refused and went on to
give birth to a healthy little girl.

Ms Streeter's story is told in a new book by Australian journalist
Melinda Tankard Reist, called Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical
Eugenics.

In a stance that is likely to be controversial, Tankard Reist argues
that Australia is at risk of becoming a society in which disability and
difference are routinely eradicated.

The book is a collection of stories by women from Australia and abroad
who have resisted pressure to abort a less-than-perfect baby. It also

includes accounts from disabled women and women with HIV who were
strongly encouraged not to reproduce for the sake of their offspring.

Tankard Reist takes aim at the medical profession, arguing that by
pressing women to terminate their pregnancies when their babies show
signs of disability, it is practising eugenics (the scientific
improvement of the human race) by another name.

She argues that both the extreme form of eugenics, practised in Nazi
Germany and what she sees as its modern-day practice, "are underpinned

by a belief that there is an unacceptable way of being human ... that

you have to get the genetic stamp of approval before you're allowed to
be born".

Tankard Reist believes the practice is driven by cost as well as the
cultural belief that "normal" babies are better.

She quotes Australian geneticist Professor Grant Sutherland, who has
said that by preventing the birth of a child with Down syndrome, the
community is saved $1 million or more over the child's life.

"It's become a cost-benefit analysis in which the abortion of a child
with a disability becomes a bargain for everybody," she says.

Professor Sutherland, contacted by The Age, said he stood by his
comments. However, he said that while he believed women should have the
option of a termination, he would never tell a woman that she should
abort her child.

Tankard Reist says women who resist the pressure to abort are made to
feel blame and guilt for producing an imperfect child. "They are made
to feel that they should not be supported because they've made bad
reproductive choices."

Tankard Reist, who has previously written a book about women's grief
after abortion, says she supports a woman's right to a termination.

But she believes that their choice is not really a free one in a
society that regards disability as a burden.

"Many women are aborting not because of choice but because of lack of
it," she says. "Women who choose termination for foetal abnormality are
choosing because they know the resources and the support are not going
to be there for their child."

Melbourne woman Leisa Whitaker, who was born with achondroplasia
(dwarfism), recounts in the book that she was asked by her specialist
to consider aborting her first child because it was likely he too would
have the condition.

"He asked us to think about whether we wanted to bring another dwarf
baby into the world," she says.

"It was something I hadn't even thought of. This was our child ... Why
would the world not accept our child?"

She has since given birth to three more children, all with dwarfism,
whom she describes as intelligent, thoughtful and a joy to be around.

Ms Whitaker wonders at the message the culture of perfection sends to
people living with disabilities.

"Does society think we are better off dead?" she asks.

Defiant Birth is published by Spinifex Press. Melinda Tankard Reist
will speak at North Melbourne Town Hall from 2-3.30pm on Sunday as part
of the Story Passions literary festival.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/abortion-or-eugenics-masquerading-as-choice/2006/03/03/1141191854034.html
Abortion or eugenics masquerading as choice?

By Rachel Gibson

March 4, 2006

A new book claims aborting the less-than-perfect has Nazi undertones.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/abortion-or-eugenics-masquerading-as-choice/2006/03/03/1141191854034.html



Abortion or eugenics masquerading as choice?

By Rachel Gibson

March 4, 2006

A new book claims aborting the less-than-perfect has Nazi undertones.


ALISON Streeter was 10 weeks pregnant when a friend brought her son
around to play. The little boy had a rash but she thought nothing of
it.

When she later discovered the boy had German measles, caused by the
rubella virus, she was distraught. Ms Streeter, from Sydney, has a rare
resistance to the rubella vaccine.

What followed was a period of extreme stress as she waited on test
results to determine whether her unborn child had contracted congenital
rubella syndrome.

In the worst case, the syndrome can cause a baby to be born blind, deaf
and brain-damaged.

But Ms Streeter's anxiety about her child quickly escalated as she
confronted bullying and pressure from a genetic counsellor to abort her
child before the test results were known. She refused and went on to
give birth to a healthy little girl.

Ms Streeter's story is told in a new book by Australian journalist
Melinda Tankard Reist, called Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical
Eugenics.

In a stance that is likely to be controversial, Tankard Reist argues
that Australia is at risk of becoming a society in which disability and
difference are routinely eradicated.

The book is a collection of stories by women from Australia and abroad
who have resisted pressure to abort a less-than-perfect baby. It also
includes accounts from disabled women and women with HIV who were
strongly encouraged not to reproduce for the sake of their offspring.

Tankard Reist takes aim at the medical profession, arguing that by
pressing women to terminate their pregnancies when their babies show
signs of disability, it is practising eugenics (the scientific
improvement of the human race) by another name.

She argues that both the extreme form of eugenics, practised in Nazi
Germany and what she sees as its modern-day practice, "are underpinned
by a belief that there is an unacceptable way of being human ... that
you have to get the genetic stamp of approval before you're allowed to
be born".

Tankard Reist believes the practice is driven by cost as well as the
cultural belief that "normal" babies are better.

She quotes Australian geneticist Professor Grant Sutherland, who has
said that by preventing the birth of a child with Down syndrome, the
community is saved $1 million or more over the child's life.

"It's become a cost-benefit analysis in which the abortion of a child
with a disability becomes a bargain for everybody," she says.

Professor Sutherland, contacted by The Age, said he stood by his
comments. However, he said that while he believed women should have the
option of a termination, he would never tell a woman that she should
abort her child.

Tankard Reist says women who resist the pressure to abort are made to
feel blame and guilt for producing an imperfect child. "They are made
to feel that they should not be supported because they've made bad
reproductive choices."

Tankard Reist, who has previously written a book about women's grief
after abortion, says she supports a woman's right to a termination.

But she believes that their choice is not really a free one in a
society that regards disability as a burden.

"Many women are aborting not because of choice but because of lack of
it," she says. "Women who choose termination for foetal abnormality are
choosing because they know the resources and the support are not going
to be there for their child."

Melbourne woman Leisa Whitaker, who was born with achondroplasia
(dwarfism), recounts in the book that she was asked by her specialist
to consider aborting her first child because it was likely he too would
have the condition.

"He asked us to think about whether we wanted to bring another dwarf
baby into the world," she says.

"It was something I hadn't even thought of. This was our child ... Why
would the world not accept our child?"

She has since given birth to three more children, all with dwarfism,
whom she describes as intelligent, thoughtful and a joy to be around.

Ms Whitaker wonders at the message the culture of perfection sends to
people living with disabilities.

"Does society think we are better off dead?" she asks.


Defiant Birth is published by Spinifex Press. Melinda Tankard Reist
will speak at North Melbourne Town Hall from 2-3.30pm on Sunday as part
of the Story Passions literary festival.

A new book claims aborting the less-than-perfect has Nazi undertones.