New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a few years ago when he visited North Korea, that there were no disabled people in the capital, Pyongyang. He was told that they were all being cared for in the country. Kristof, didn’t believe it, writing, “The darker explanation is that North Korea systematically exiles mentally retarded and disabled people from the capital, so as not to mar its beauty.’
When I read that column, the hairs stood up on my arm. I felt like yelling, “They haven’t been moved you idiot, they have been killed!” I wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that possibility, which was not published.
But I never forgot that column. Now, it looks like I was right. A defector claims that disabled babies are killed in hospitals or homes soon after their births, a practice that is encouraged by the state.
Dutch doctors kill disabled babies too. But, it’s “different” with them because they are motivated by compassion rather than eugenics. So even though the result is a killed baby, the Dutch tell us we have no right to be upset.
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