Anger in Japan as report reveals children were forcibly sterilised | Hacker News Reader

Anger in Japan as report reveals children were forcibly sterilised

theguardian.com

19 pointslisasays13 comments

This brings to mind the genocidal "coil campaign" of eugenics against indigenous Greenlanders, and the 100% abortion rate in Iceland of children who may have had Down syndrome. It's monstrous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_case

This sort of thing sounds too cartoonishly evil for Denmark to have done at the government level so recently (i.e. not in the 1600s). Was this really a targeted thing, or is it like a chain of sources over time, each citing a controversial subset of the prior one until it sounds like it was specifically targeting a certain group?

> the 100% abortion rate in Iceland of children who may have had Down syndrome

My understanding is that, like in many developed countries, Down’s syndrome screening is offered during pregnancy and the choice is left to the would be parents.

Regardless of your views on abortion this appears to be a very different set of circumstances to the Spiral Case.

That seems like a great idea! Hey, I'm curious though, does the doctor approach the unborn child, and ask what he or she would choose? Are they presented with the statistics on false positives for prenatal screenings? Do you think they would have something to say about their human rights, discrimination, or ableism? Or are they just unpersons with no rights of their own?

Nature's cruel and in modern society there's a shrinking place for people without advanced skills. And odds are that a child with a cognitive disability like that wouldn't be able to have advanced skills. So the child is nearly always going to be put into the "Have not" category. A human isn't a pet, and having a child who is always going to struggle to be independent isn't good for society, or anyone involved. With modern medicine we can stop alot of cruelty, like childhood illnesses and such, and we can also screen for these things. Not only this, but the resources taken could've been given to others with far more potential. You could deny child #2 from being a doctor due to the resources that must be given to child #1, and robbing one child for another isn't right, especially when it's wasted.

Congratulations, your comment enthusiastically epitomizes ableism, utilitarianism, and nihilism. Would you volunteer to be euthanized so that I can make better use of your resources?

> Would you volunteer to be euthanized so that I can make better use of your resources?

I wish this false equivalency would stop.

> ableism

Yeah, how horrifying that you’ve expressed a preference for society to be made of the able bodied and sound of mind. What a revolting idea! Despicable monster! Everyone should have the right to be absolutely wretched, mentally deranged, and at the whims of state care.

Feeding trolls only makes them more hungry.

> Yeah, how horrifying that you’ve expressed a preference for society to be made of the able bodied and sound of mind.

I can think of a few world leaders who have expressed that preference, according to very particular definitions, and in fact took concrete steps to make their preference a reality. Is that the sort of leader you want for yourself?

Taking steps to the contrary would be something like not allowing abortion in the case of detected of genetic defects, which seemed to be what the upstream poster was suggesting.

Every society wants an able bodied society and takes steps toward that end.

> I'm curious though, does the doctor approach the unborn child, and ask what he or she would choose?

And if he does, what do you think the "child"[1] will answer.

[1] Assuming it looks like a "child".

When there are people who are defenseless, or incapable of answering for themselves, that is when civilized society turns to human rights.

Over 100 refugees drowned in a vessel off the coast of Greece. What if you could ask them, would they choose to drown or to escape their troubled homeland for a better life?

George Floyd and Rodney King were brutalized by police. If the police asked them, if they want to live in peace, what do you think they would answer?

Terri Schiavo had an accident and lived in a vegetative state while her husband tried to terminate her life. If you asked Terri whether she wanted food and water, what would she answer?

6 million Jews were carted off to concentration camps, and ultimately, crematory ovens or gas chambers. If you asked those Jews, were they happy to die in Germany or live out their lives in a democratic nation, how would they answer?

Blacks in the United States were once considered 3/5ths of a human person. If you granted the right to vote for those Blacks, do you think they would have voted to maintain that as the status quo?

It seems that human rights are most precious when those rights protect people who are powerless, disadvantaged, or unable to speak for themselves. Human rights protect the people who can't fight back, the people who can't change the government, the people who aren't considered persons at all.

Personally, I believe those are the people who are most in need of our protection and advocacy.

>That seems like a great idea! Hey, I'm curious though, does the doctor approach the unborn child, and ask what he or she would choose?

And yet, no unborn child has ever asked to be born.

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