Australia: Children With Down Syndrome Not Wanted

This is shameful eugenics, morally akin in my view, to laws in the USA that barred disfavored nationalities and Jews in the years running up to World War II. A German family has asked for permanent residency in Australia and the country said no because their son has Down syndrome. From the story:

A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia said Friday he will fight an immigration department decision denying his application because his son has Down syndrome.

Bernhard Moeller came to Australia with his family two years ago to help fill a doctor shortage in a rural area of Victoria state. His temporary work visa is valid until 2010, but his application for permanent residency was rejected this week. The immigration department said Moeller’s 13-year-old son, Lukas, “did not meet the health requirement.”

“A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son’s existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community,” a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. This is not discrimination. A disability in itself is not grounds for failing the health requirement—it is a question of the cost implications to the community,” the statement said.

Of course it is discrimination, the new eugenics bigotry justified by “health care costs.”

If you think not, let’s try a mind experiment: Would Australia ever deny permanent residence to a family whose child had HIV? The outcry would be heard in the States.

This eugenic tide is flowing, not ebbing, and people with Down are prime targets; of eugenic abortion, of medical neglect after birth, of infanticide, of health care rationing, of futile care theory, and now of refused immigration. Such are the consequences of rejecting human exceptionalism and embracing the bigotry intrinsic to the “quality of life” ethic.