Ireland's Health Service Executive has come under a barrage of well-earned criticism, following its crass remarks about children with disabilities. The HSE has suggested that Ireland's high levels of Spina Bifida and other disabilities are the 'fault'of Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion. In other words the HSE has a problem with Ireland protecting its most vulnerable citizens and an even bigger problem with parents who have the audacity to bring disabled children into the world. Disability rights groups and parents of disabled children have reacted angrily to the comments, calling them "insensitive" and "disgraceful" but tragically, the HSE's appalling attitude towards disability is common among lawmakers and members of the medical establishment across Europe. Abortion has fuelled the eugenicist notion so popular among the Nazis that some lives are not worth protecting, and this view is being shamelessly propagated by those who claim to speak in the name of liberty.
The HSE should issue a full and public apology to the thousands of Irish citizens who are living with disabilities or caring for those with disabilities. Ireland has a pro-life constitution of which it should be proud, we remain one of the only countries in Europe to afford protection to the most vulnerable and innocent human lives. We have a duty to ourselves and to the world to continue to welcome and protect people with disabilities, the unborn and all sections of the population other countries regard as expendable.
