Doctors in Belgium overwhelmingly agreed that infanticide was acceptable, according to a new study.*
Of the healthcare professionals polled in Flanders, 93.6% of physicians surveyed ‘agree that in the event of a serious (non-lethal) neonatal condition, administering drugs with the explicit intention to end neonatal life is acceptable’.
While the term ‘serious (non-lethal) neonatal condition’ is not defined in the paper, similarly unrestrictive wording in the UK Abortion Act has in practice allowed for abortion right up to birth for babies prenatally diagnosed with a disability – including Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot.
The abstract also showed that medics are demanding legislative change regarding active life‐ending in the foetal and neonatal (new born) periods.
The survey was conducted among all physicians and paramedical professionals involved in late abortion decision‐making in the eight centres with a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Flanders.
Healthcare in Belgium sees residents top up state care with private policies. Care for babies born with a disability would therefore not be free, as it is in the UK.
A spokesman for the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) said: ’We were disturbed to hear the report from Belgium last week revealing that nearly 90% of doctors surveyed would consider it morally acceptable to deliberately end the life of a baby born with ‘a serious (non‐lethal) … condition’. We were disturbed, yes, but not excessively surprised. Philosophers have long argued that the journey down the birth canal is an arbitrary point in the development of human life at which to grant a human the full moral rights of personhood.
‘We agree. Where we differ, however, is in our understanding of where that moral tipping point should be situated. As Christians, we believe that a new moral being is created at the point of conception. Any point after that would be arbitrary, and based on characteristics, features and capacities which are by no means easy to identify, let alone morally relevant.
‘The notion that doctors would be happy to contemplate infanticide is deeply upsetting. However, it is a logical progression from contemplating (and even participating in) termination up to the point of birth on such grounds. We believe that both are equally morally wrong, and would urge the UK to take heed of the lesson and consider the trajectory we are currently on.’
*https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aogs.13967?af=R
