Richard Dawkins on babies with Down's Syndrome: "Abort it and Try Again"

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Budding atheists wondering whether Richard Dawkins is in need of a little time away from Twitter to reflect on the past few weeks are about to have their (lack of) prayers answered.

The philosopher has managed to go one step further than his controversial comments on ‘date rape versus stranger rape’ to voice his opinions on what it would be ethical for a mother who is informed that her unborn child has Down Syndrome to do.

He started off his conversation with followers ethically enough, highlighting the plight of women in Ireland, where abortion is illegal, in light of the recent reports of the country’s refusal to provide a safe abortion to a suicidal rape victim. She was forced to give birth.

“Ireland is a civilised country except in this 1 area,” he tweeted, adding “You'd think the Roman Church would have lost all influence,” to caption a link to a similar article.

But after engaging in conversation with a number of users, his ethical values appeared to come a little unstuck.

“994 human beings with Down's Syndrome deliberately killed before birth in England and Wales in 2012. Is that civilised?” @AidanMcCourt asked.

“Yes, it is very civilised. These are fetuses, diagnosed before they have human feelings,” Dawkins responded.

“I honestly don't know what I would do if I were pregnant with a kid with Down Syndrome. Real ethical dilemma,” @InYourFaceNYer chimed in.

“Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice,” he tweeted back.

There's more to the article, but it's in the form of Tweets.

Ahem, let's go back to this one:
“Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice,” he tweeted back.
Yeah...tell that to women who tried to concieve for a long time before finally getting pregnant, Hawkins. Or women who are infertile that took a lot of IVF or other forms of fertility treatment to get pregnant. Or women who have fucking miscarried. It sucks a lot to tried to concieve for a long time only to get pregnant and lose it, whether to miscarriage or grudgingly resorting to abortion because there's something wrong with the fetus. And then, who knows how long it will take a woman to get pregnant again because despite popular belief...some of us don't get pregnant that easy just from having sex.

Try putting yourself in a woman's shoes that has taken a long time to concieve and she's happy that she's made it far enough in pregnancy like the second or beginning of the third trimester. However, she finds out at one of her appointments that the pregnancy she's been trying so hard to concieve and want has an issue that could affect the fetus', the woman, or both. Can you fucking imagine, Mr. Dawkins, how hard it is for women in that scenario to consider aborting a pregnancy they've been trying to get for a long time and want? Let alone, wrestle with the idea that this may be their last fucking shot especially if they are in their thirties or forties? No, I don't think you have because you have never been in that scenario to make such a decision. And any woman that goes through that kind of heart breaking situation shouldn't be called immoral for chosing to carry the fetus to term just like they shouldn't be called immoral for chosing to terminate that pregnancy. It's not an easy decision for the woman and whatever the woman choses, she's the one that has to live with that decision. Not you and others that judge her for her decision since you're not the ones that live with that choice

To me, I find it personally immoral to call someone immoral for chosing to carry ANY pregnancy to term just like I do when someone is called immoral for chosing to abort ANY pregnancy.