NZ Government Policy Inconsistency #237

Consider two families: one has a two-year old girl with Down Syndrome, and the mother is pregnant, the other has a normal two-year old and the mother is also pregnant. The mothers both have antenatal screening tests. The first mother is expecting a normal child; the second mother is told that her child has Down Syndrome.

It is typical in New Zealand for the mother in the second case to be offered an abortion by their doctor or midwife.  (Although New Zealand law does not permit abortion on demand, the High Court has found that the statistics on abortion approvals indicate that that is what we have in practice.)

However, in the first family, we don’t allow the mother to kill her child with Down Syndrome and keep the normal one that she is carrying in her womb.

Why the difference?

The National Screening Programme which identifies unborn babies with Down syndrome is promoted by the Government as the “Quality Improvement Programme”.  If the Government is really serious about “improving the quality” of the New Zealand population by getting rid of people with Down Syndrome, why is it restricting the programme to the unborn?  Is Health Minister Tony Ryall too squeamish to send the men in white coats round to the IHC?  No; he just realises that New Zealanders are not ready (yet) for the culling of 2-year olds, 22-year olds, or 42-year olds.  But unborn children? No problem!  That doesn’t create even the smallest blip on the media radar.



The National Screening Programme is an exercise in eugenics, a “search and destroy” mission that meets the United Nations definition of genocide.  It contravenes the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the NZ Human Rights Act, and is at odds with the Government’s own Disability Strategy.

That Disability Strategy says that “New Zealand will be inclusive when people with impairments can say they live in a society that highly values our lives and continually enhances our full participation”.  It is hard to participate fully in society when you have been thrown dead into a bucket in an abortion clinic.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that “persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes about policies and programmes, including those directly concerning them”.  It is hard to be very involved in decision-making processes when your skull has been crushed and your brains sucked out.

The National Screening Programme is a national disgrace.  People with Down Syndrome have the same right to life, dignity and respect as anyone else – from conception until natural death.  The Programme must be stopped immediately.  Write to Hon. Tony Ryall, Minister of Health, Parliament Buildings, Wellington.  (No stamp required.)