Dawkins sparks outrage for saying Down Syndrome babies should be aborted

[Dystopia]

The thing you seem to miss is that the foetuses we're talking about don't qualify for human rights. Moot point.

Miss? No, I know perfectly foetuses don't qualify for human rights. I was merely saying that the thing of 'life is sacred' is not entirely a lie.. In fact as an atheist, I value life more than most theists since I know this is the only life. It was just an off topic point.

Eh, I disagree. I'm sure you'd have something to say if people in incestual relationships bred disfigured offspring over and over. People suddenly change their tune then. Y'see, it's not just your choice. It's not just your life the decision affects. People should absolutely be advised against bringing in more dependant offspring into the world when they are capable of having healthier children. That's not immoral and there's nothing wrong with not wanting a disabled child, in fact, IMHO it should be encouraged by health professionals. The key thing is that the decision gets made before the foetus turns into a baby.

Nobody is pro-abortion. Nobody wants to say "abortion is a thing to be done". But sometimes it is the best thing. That's the reality that you don't like to accept, you'd much rather bring a disabled child into the world when the parents could simply try again and have a healthy foetus the second time round. I don't understand the logic. We're not talking about murdering babies. This is why abortion is such a dirty topic. The waters are always muddied by people who insist on thinking of foetuses as actual children.

Dawkins' opinion is literally pro abortion, saying 'people X should abort' is incentiving abortion.

I don't think it's up to health professionals to promote or dispromote abortion, they should just say 'Hey if this brings you trouble, it's a legal and valid option'. It's not up to anyone to say weather or not a woman should have an abortion. Just like I disagree with anti-abortion attitudes, I'll disagree with pro-abortion ones, it's a choice, a though one, but not up to anyone to dictate.

I agree completely that there's nothing wrong in not wanting a disabled child, I share that opinion, but there's nothing wrong in raising a disabled child either, it's a personal choice, even if our morals go against that choice it's not up to us to interfere with it.

I find Dawkins' attitude reprehensible as much as I find anti-abortion Christian headlines, it's a private matter, people make their choices (women), no one else has a saying. And I'm saying this as someone who thinks abortion is preferable if the child is going to be handicapped - But take the case of my girlfriend, she wouldn't abort an unborn baby if it was handicapped, unless, let's say, it was a totally severe mental or physical problem that would cause enormous pain and reduce a LOT the future person's lifespan (extreme cases), I don't have a problem with her stance, if she got pregnant and the baby was to be handicapped (in this case, Down Syndrome) I'd raise him happily, in fact I've been with kids who possess the said syndrome and taking care of them is not that painful and hard as people think it is - I remember when I was a kid I became friends with another kid with down syndrome, he played with me and my friends, was quite happy, he was just not the same as us, but it wasn't a problem. If I was a woman, I don't know what I would do. My point with this is just to say it's a personal choice, I will respect people if they abort an unborn handicapped child as much as I'd respect them if they voluntarily chose to raise him/her.

As for incestuous couples breeding, that's a completely different matter (in fact so is incest) and I'm sure we could start a thread on it someday.

When I make my opinion on something, I usually balance both sides. Let's imagine I was a woman - I'd want to abort an handicapped baby... Now let's say I was the handicapped baby (let's pretend I was capable of having a conscience and processing thoughts) - I'd want to live. Therefore my conclusion is that both options are valid, it's mostly a conflict of values.