Immoral not to abort unborn children with Down's Syndrome, says Richard Dawkins

"As a scientist, Dawkins should know better than to deny that human life begins at conception"

Professor Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist scientist, has said that it is "immoral" not to abort unborn children with Down's Syndrome. He made the comments in a discussion on Twitter.

The professor argued that foetuses should not be given the same legal rights as older human beings.

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the BBC: "All unborn children, whether disabled or not, are equal members of the human family, and therefore have an equal right to life with the rest of humanity.

"As a scientist, Dawkins should know better than to deny that human life begins at conception. As a former foetus, I am against abortion in all circumstances." [BBC, 21 August]

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  Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, commented: "This is utilitarian tick-box medicine,  in which hospital managers put a selfish desire to evade challenging work above the right to life and their duty of care to their patients. In a society in which human life is regarded as disposable, it is inevitable that bureaucracies will put pressure on ordinary people to agree to terminate lives deemed wasteful. The Mental Capacity Act and the Liverpool Care Pathway have worked to entrench this mentality in the National Health Service."
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