Letter: Rights of handicapped babies
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Your report "Aborted baby lived 45 minutes" (10 May) repeated the common view that choosing to kill a baby by abortion is a tragedy only if the baby is not disabled. The medical director of the NHS trust which carried out the abortion said: "Everyone was so upset it turned out to be healthy."
What message does this send out to those like me who have a severe disability? I have spina bifida, and the vast majority of babies with my degree of disability are now aborted.
Why would everyone not have been equally upset if the baby had been disabled? The answer lies in our abortion law, which sets the tone for the discrimination disabled people encounter throughout their lives. For if there is no right to life, how can we expect a recognition of any other rights?
Alison Davis
Blandford Forum, Dorset
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