UN Treaty Writers Weigh Abortion Ban for Disabled

	Tweet

U.N. diplomats drafting an international treaty on the rights of the disabled debated a possible ban on the abortion of fetuses with disabilities in an emotional negotiating session that ended on Friday.

A working text of the convention would prohibit the termination of a pregnancy in the case of a fetus with a disability in countries where abortion was otherwise legal.

"It was a very emotional argument, and if you are a person with disability and you are thinking that you might have been aborted because of your disability, it becomes a very personal issue,” said New Zealand Ambassador Don MacKay.

Diplomats ended up deferring action on the ban because it was too hot a topic, said MacKay, coordinator of the two-week session.

“This will be one of the hardest issues to resolve. but there are a lot of really hard issues here,” he said.

The convention, which drafters hope will come into effect in 2008, also called on governments to provide financial support to the parents of children born with disabilities.

It would require nations ratifying it to adopt laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of any form of disability, from the blind to the mentally ill.

The United Nations has been writing a treaty establishing the rights of the world’s 600 million disabled since 2001.

Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, chairman of the drafting panel, said he hoped it would be completed by the end of 2006 and ratified by enough governments to take force in 2009 at the latest, alongside landmark U.N. conventions protecting women’s and children’s rights.

He had previously estimated the drafting process would be completed by late 2005.

Gallegos said the concept of disability and how to deal with it was rapidly evolving. The current challenge was to ensure the rights of the disabled and integrate them into society.

Not that long ago, people wearing glasses could neither fly a plane nor drive a car, but now they can, he said. 

RELATED STORIES:
Flu shots available for high-risk adults   Pakistan Kashmir faces disease after quake   More than 2 Million Children with Insured Parents Are Uninsured   Web Site Promotes Flu Shot Alternative   Eating 30 percent less meat good for health, planet   Online health info popular but often unchecked   Senators warn USDA to justify Canada mad cow rule   Starting university may be hazardous to your health: study   Open Enrollment Begins for State Health Insurance Plan   Botswana winning education war on AIDS with “ABC”   FDA to revise drug review letters   Medicaid cure to be headache

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]