Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13269 | 02 July 2013
Combat “Down-syndromecide”
People with disabilities still experience discrimination in their daily lives. The type and extent of discrimination varies depending on the cultures. People with disabilities suffer various forms of discrimination, including being rejected by and segregated from mainstream society.
In technologically advanced societies, people with genetic disabilities increasingly suffer from a new widespread prejudice, which considers their very existence as a medical error. In some European countries, over 90% of foetuses diagnosed as Down syndrome are routinely eliminated before birth. A new ideology (“new high quality men”) is a reality in countries where prenatal screening has become systematic, in turn leading to the stigmatization of persons with genetic disability and their families, in particular those with Down syndrome.
European and international law has repeatedly condemned any temptation of “eugenics” in Articles 4 and 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons. Other European and international norms, such as the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, the Convention of the Rights of the Child as well as the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention), contain similar provisions.
The Parliamentary Assembly should therefore analyse and discuss this subject and invite the member States to adopt measures in order to implement their commitment “that every human being has the inherent right to life and (...) to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others”, as required, inter alia, by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.