LIFE DIGEST: Russian writer promotes killing of disabled newborns
- Feb 9, 2010 -
A Russian journalist has prompted an outcry in his home country by advocating for the killing of disabled babies.
Parents of newborns with disabilities should have the legal choice to euthanize their children, Aleksandr Nikonov wrote, according to a report in RT, a global TV network from Russia.
Also in this edition: MPs complain of BBC bias on euthanasia and Hill, abortion rights pioneer, dies.
In his piece, Nikonov described disabled babies as “defective blanks” and “newborn idiots,” saying “the killing of the newborn is in fact the same as an abortion,” RT reported Feb. 8. His article, with the headline “Finish it off so it doesn’t suffer,” argued ending the life of such a baby is “true humanism.”
Nikonov’s piece drew sharp criticism from people with disabled family members, as well as human rights advocates, according to RT. He promoted a view similar to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, some critics said.
Svetlana Shtarkova, the mother of a disabled child, said, according to RT, “The author is not raising a disabled child – that is why his generalized conclusions about the life of disabled people and their families . . . are just speculations. As a mother of a disabled child, and based on my experience, I state that these speculations have nothing to do with the reality.”
Shtarkova and Snezhana Mitina, another mother of a disabled child, filed a complaint with the Board of the Union of Russian Journalists, RT reported.
The journalists’ board criticized both Nikonov and his newspaper. Nikonov violated professional ethics, and the paper should have published information to balance the writer’s viewpoint, the board said.
MPs complain of BBC bias on euthanasia
Members of Parliament have charged the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) with promoting the legalization of euthanasia and have threatened to cut off funds as a result.
Ann Winterton, a Conservative Party member, has the backing of five other Parliament members for a motion that says the BBC has used its news and entertainment programing to advance the pro-euthanasia cause, according to the Telegraph. The motion calls on the government to warn the BBC it will withhold money for the publicly funded broadcaster unless it treats public issues “impartially,” the newspaper reported Feb. 5.
The members of Parliament say the BBC is continually biased “on matters relating to euthanasia and other life issues.” They complain of “thinly disguised plays and soap operas being used to promote the use of euthanasia and misrepresentation of pro-life activists in the UK as people of violence.”
The BBC has “ignored the rights of the disabled, despite the fact that every disability group in the UK is opposed to the [legalization] of assisted suicide and euthanasia,” Winterton and the others say.
The BBC defended itself. A spokesman said it has “reported these issues in a careful, balanced and impartial way.”
Hill, abortion rights pioneer, dies
Susan Hill, a leading abortion rights advocate and owner of multiple abortion clinics, died Jan. 30 of breast cancer.
Hill, 61, of Raleigh, N.C., was president of the National Women’s Health Foundation, which consisted of four abortion clinics – in Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and North Carolina — at her death. She helped open the first abortion clinic in Florida after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
She was a founding member of the National Abortion Federation and the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, according to The Raleigh News & Observer. Hill was a party in more than 30 lawsuits in support of abortion rights, the newspaper reported.
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Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Disabled, End-of-Life Issues, Citizenship