A record of how eugenics has taken hold in Ireland

 

Eugenics is a philosophy that decides who is ‘fit’ to live and who is not. In the past, it could be State-imposed and coercive. Today, it is much more likely to be chosen by parents who screen their babies in the womb for disabilities like Down Syndrome and then frequently opt for abortion when such a diagnosis is given. Ireland is by no mean immune to this. The Iona Institute has been researching the rise of eugenics in Ireland and elsewhere over the years and writing about it regularly through our blog. Below, we present a selection of those writings. What it catalogues is chilling. We look at the history of eugenics, and in particular the progressive elimination of children with Down Syndrome from our societies. This should prompt national soul-searching but has not done so to date. Nonetheless, it must be recorded, and this is what we do here.

 

Ireland

Screening out Down Syndrome shows true nature of modern Ireland

More Irish opting for eugenic abortion

In practice most people are as pro-eugenics as Richard Dawkins

How the 8th amendment saved hundreds of babies with Down Syndrome

What Dr Peter McParland told the Citizens’ Assembly

 

The history

Mother and Baby Homes report highlights how eugenics targeted unmarried mothers

How eugenics took a hold of social democratic Denmark

How science was used to victimise unmarried mothers

The abortion movement and its root to eugenics

 

A world without Down Syndrome

How social disapproval of Down Syndrome affects my child

Down Syndrome: a response to Fintan O’Toole

Official figures badly underestimate number of Down Syndrome abortions

Screening for defective children reaches a new level of sophistication

Big money to be made from pre-natal testing

 

A surprising reason why fertility rates have fallen so much

 

Fertility rates are declining almost everywhere, and we are not recognising the dramatic consequences for future generations, a new documentary highlights. But the documentary comes up with a rarely recognised reason for what is taking place, namely that many women who want children find for various reasons that their wish is not fulfilled.

Over the past 70 years, there has been a global decline in fertility rates, with a total fall of 50pc. In most parts of the world, fertility rates are now well below the replacement level of 2.1 babies per woman. (Ireland’s fertility rate is about 1.6, from a peak of 3.9 births per woman in the early 1960s).

Data scientist and filmmaker Stephen J. Shaw has travelled to 24 countries and analysed millions of data points in order to understand global fertility rates and predict the future population of the Earth. The results, presented in his documentary, “Birthgap”, are alarming.

It is a common belief that there are too many people on this planet, but the truth is that there is a real risk that the overall population will collapse, with dramatic consequences. Shaw predicts a humanitarian crisis of lonely old people.

Even if the overall number of people is still growing, soon the trend will reverse, as it is already happening in many countries.

Seventy percent of countries worldwide are currently below the population tipping point. As the number of newborns continue to decline, there will be a greater responsibility for supporting a larger elderly population.

Significantly, Shaw shows that in 30 industrialised countries, the average family size in the mid-1980s was the same as today: 2.4 people. This being so, why have average fertility rates falling by so much? The answer is that far fewer people are becoming parents at all.

By way of illustration, he points out that Japan has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world at 1.34. In 1973, 6pc of Japanese mothers were having four or more children, but surprisingly this figure is exactly the same today. What has changed is the number of childless women. It was 6pc in 1973 and within four years it reached 30pc, causing a drastic drop in births.

The same can be seen in other countries with very low birth rates. In Italy, for instance, 40pc of women are now childless.

It is not that mothers are having fewer children, but instead, there are fewer mothers. So the real issue is childlessness, which is often not what childless women want, Shaw claims.

This trend can be attributed to many factors.

A meta-study by Dutch academic Prof. Renske Keizer, found that just 10pc of women without children are childless by choice, 10pc for medical reasons, and 80pc because of circumstances. The most common factor is that they cannot find a suitable relationship. Paradoxically, this happens more when they are more educated and have a good career, as the more professionally successful a woman is, the stronger her preference for successful men. The problem is that not enough of these men exist.

Another factor, Shaw says, is that the female ‘fertility window’ is often overestimated and having children is delayed, by choice or circumstances, until the chance is gone.

There is no simple solution to a complex problem and all attempts so far have only mitigated the trend that has become global. Only in parts of Africa are fertility rates still above the replacement level.

Given that more women want children than is the case, society needs to urgently find legitimate ways of meeting this wish.

Utero in affitto, ferita di tutto il mondo

Cento giuristi, medici e filosofi di 75 Paesi firmano la «Carta di Casablanca» per una convenzione internazionale che metta al bando la maternità surrogata

 Cristian Gennari/

Cento esperti di differenti discipline – soprattutto giuristi, medici, psicologi, sociologi e filosofi – e di 75 nazionalità diverse, riuniti nei giorni scorsi a Casablanca, hanno firmato una Dichiarazione in cui chiedono il bando globale della surrogazione di maternità e incoraggiano gli Stati a iniziare un processo che porti all’adozione di una Convenzione internazionale vincolante per tutti coloro che la ratificano, come fu ad esempio quella contro l’uso delle mine antiuomo nei conflitti.

La Dichiarazione nasce da un confronto tra esperti di diverse religioni, culture, provenienze: la conclusione a cui sono arrivati è che la dimensione globale del business della maternità surrogata richiede ormai una risposta internazionale e che l’unico modo per proteggere le donne e i bambini dalla domanda crescente sia che gli Stati lavorino insieme in direzione dell’abolizione, laddove la pratica dell’utero in affitto è ammessa o tollerata. «Convinti che il contratto con cui uno o più contraenti concordano con una donna che questa partorirà uno o più bambini per poi consegnarli alla nascita viola la dignità umana e contribuisce alla mercificazione delle donne e dei bambini, chiediamo agli Stati di condannare la maternità surrogata in tutte le sue forme e modalità, sia a pagamento che non, e di adottare misure per combattere questa pratica. A tal fine, formuliamo le seguenti raccomandazioni agli Stati: vietare la maternità surrogata sul proprio territorio, negare qualsiasi valore legale ai contratti che prevedono l’impegno di una donna a portare in grembo e far nascere un bambino (per altri, ndr), sanzionare le persone fisiche o giuridiche che si propongono come intermediari tra madri surrogate e aspiranti genitori, sanzionare chi ricorre alla maternità surrogata sul proprio territorio, sanzionare i propri cittadini che ricorrono alla maternità surrogata al di fuori del proprio territorio, agire per l’adozione di uno strumento giuridico internazionale che porti all’abolizione universale della maternità surrogata. In allegato a questa dichiarazione, proponiamo un progetto di Convenzione internazionale a libera disposizione degli Stati che vorranno impegnarsi in questo processo».

Va ricordato che sono solo 20 (su 212) i Paesi del mondo che hanno legalizzato, con diverse modalità, la gravidanza per altri: Australia, quattro Stati degli Usa, Regno Unito, Canada, Bielorussia, Russia, Ucraina, Kazakistan, Georgia, India, Israele, Messico, Nepal, Thailandia, Guatemala, Cipro, Grecia, Belgio, Repubblica Ceca e Islanda. La Dichiarazione di Casablanca per il bando della maternità surrogata parte dell’idea che la pratica sia «intrinsecamente contraria alla dignità umana e ai diritti umani e che nessuna variante sia accettabile. L’idea di una surrogata etica è un imbroglio, perché non esiste e non può esistere». Un po’ come sta accadendo in Italia con la formulazioni di proposte di legge “secche” per rendere la gravidanza per altri un reato universale, così la Dichiarazione chiede ai Paesi di adottare misure contro la maternità surrogata, senza approfondire i vari motivi – che possono essere diversi in base alla cultura, alla religione... – per cui questa pratica viola i diritti umani.

Tra i firmatari, Aude Mirkovic, portavoce dell’associazione francese Giuristi per l’infanzia, impegnata in patria contro l’apertura della procreazione assistita alle coppie lesbiche. Dal Paraguay è arrivato a Casablanca Lindolfo Mendoza, già presidente della Società di perinatologia; dagli Stati Uniti Katy Faust, presidente dell’associazione «Them before us» (Loro prima di noi); dal Camerun Christian Totsie, presidente dell’associazione Prendersi cura della vita. Gli esperti si sono confrontati sugli aspetti antropologici ed etici connessi all’utero in affitto, compreso lo sfruttamento delle donne del Terzo Mondo. Nel suo intervento Angela Gandra, già Segretaria di Stato del Brasile, ha detto con chiarezza che «un bambino deve essere generato, non prodotto». Come osservatore indipendente a Casablanca era presente Suzanne Aho Assouma, ex ministra della Sanità del Togo e ora membro del Comitato sui diritti dell’infanzia dell’Onu, che vigila sul rispetto della omonima Convenzione: «Sicuramente – ha detto – la maternità surrogata è un attacco alla dignità umana e quindi una violazione dei diritti del bambino e della donna. Dobbiamo combattere il traffico di bambini nati dalla Gestazione per altri». La psicologa belga Anne Schaub ha sottolineato come la Gpa provochi «la ferita dell’abbandono». «Il bambino – ha detto – non ha la possibilità di scegliere se affezionarsi alla donna che lo porta in grembo, non ha la capacità di dire a sé stesso “lascio mia madre ma non importa, ne avrò un’altra”».

Per l’Italia erano presenti Vincenzo Bassi, presidente della Fafce (la Federazione europea della associazioni familiari cattoliche) e il filosofo Angelo Bottone, docente in una università irlandese. «La maternità surrogata è ormai una questione internazionale: le leggi nazionali infatti vengono aggirate semplicemente andando all’estero, nei Paesi in cui è ammessa o tollerata – ragiona Bottone –. La Dichiarazione di Casablanca è importante per ché sottolinea proprio questa dimensione sovranazionale e tenta di creare uno schema di lavoro comune. Inoltre il fatto che l’abbiano sottoscritta 100 esperti di 75 Paesi sottolinea come ormai ci sia una sentimento condiviso di rifiuto di una pratica che è soprattutto un grande mercato».infanzia dell’Onu, che vigila sul rispetto della omonima Convenzione: «Sicuramente – ha detto   la maternità surrogata è un attacco alla dignità umana e quindi una violazione dei diritti del bambino e della donna. Dobbiamo combattere il traffico di bambini nati dalla Gestazione per altri». La psicologa belga Anne Schaub ha sottolineato come la Gpa provochi «la ferita dell’abbandono». «Il bambino – ha detto – non ha la possibilità di scegliere se affezionarsi alla donna che lo porta in grembo, non ha la capacità di dire a sé stesso “lascio mia madre ma non importa, ne avrò un’altra”».

Per l’Italia erano presenti Vincenzo Bassi, presidente della Fafce (la Federazione europea della associazioni familiari cattoliche) e il filosofo Angelo Bottone, docente in una università irlandese. «La maternità surrogata è ormai una questione internazionale: le leggi nazionali infatti vengono aggirate semplicemente andando all’estero, nei Paesi in cui è ammessa o tollerata - ragiona Bottone –. La Dichiarazione di Casablanca è importante per ché sottolinea proprio questa dimensione sovranazionale e tenta di creare uno schema di lavoro comune. Inoltre il fatto che l’abbiano sottoscritta 100 esperti di 75 Paesi sottolinea come ormai ci sia una sentimento condiviso di rifiuto di una pratica che è soprattutto un grande mercato».