Life After Death

In 1976 the Department of Health published a book to mark the launch of a major screening programme of amniocentesis and abortion of disabled babies which included the following justification for the programme: "Apart from the medical conditions to which they are prone in infancy and childhood, mongol children may require, as many do, eventually to be cared for in institutions imposing a further heavy burden on the health service ... The grossly handicapped spina bifida child and adult makes large demands on the health and social services. It seems likely that, in general, the cost of these demands will exceed the cost of a programme to detect the condition." Department of Health, Prevention and Health: Everybody's Business: a reassessment of public and personal health, (1976) Thus the handicapped child and adults were seen merely as debits on the State ledger - not as individuals with needs and rights: "In the same vein, the doctors working at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1992 announced a new blood test for pregnant women which could detect Down's Syndrome in the womb and which, they boasted, would save the country ÂŁ82,000 in upkeep for every affected baby killed before birth." Jeremy Laurance, 'London doctors make Downs breakthrough', The Times, 14 August, 1992 A chilling report from the Office of Health Economics (1993) observed that: "Genetic disorders place considerable health and economic burdens not only on affected people and their families but also on the community as a whole." Richard West, Born Imperfect: the Role of Genetic Disease, Office of Health Economics (1993) The report described 'genetic counselling' for couples planning to reproduce, on the grounds that many genetic and hereditary disorders can be predicted in advance.

Advances in 'gene mapping' may lead to extremely accurate forecasts of the life expectancy of individuals, even before they are born. One suggestion put forward for discussion was that a woman who knowingly gave birth to a disabled child could be 'held accountable' and made to pay the health costs herself. (ibid., p.30) "In the same way one is required to take a test before being allowed to drive a car, a test may be required before one is deemed suitably able to give birth." (ibid., p.28) This approach to handicap as a matter of financial gain or loss for society is not new. In Nazi Germany it was a major consideration behind the euthanasia programme, which included amputees from the First World War among its handicapped victims. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf: "It [the People's State] must see to it that only those who are healthy shall beget children ... In this matter that State must assert itself as the trustee of a millennial future ... Those who are physically and mentally unhealthy and unfit must not perpetuate their own suffering in the bodies of their children." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translated by James Murphy, Hurst and Blackett 1939. pp. 338-9