Eugenics?

In Stockholm, where I live, all pregnant women will from this year be offered to do NT (NUPP-test in Swedish). The test shows the risk for the baby being born with Down Syndrome. The test used to be offered to women over 35, as the risk of having a baby with Down Syndrome gets higher with age. But now, as I said, it will be offered to everybody.

The reason for this is, according to the ones that's been promoting it, that people will not test the amniotic fluid if the NT shows a low risk. Doing tests on the amniotic fluid creates a higher risk for miscarriages than the risk there is to have a child with Down Syndrome. So the NT is good in that sense.

What is not good, if you ask me, is that this test is being offered to everyone. The test basically only shows the risk for Down Syndrome. It does not guarantee that the baby will not have another handicap, illness, and so on.

What offering this test to everyone does, is creating a feeling about Down Syndrome being something not normal, not okay, a really horrible handicap, etc. Most people barely know what Down Syndrome is. A lot of people still call all sorts of mental handicaps as mongolism. Many midwives don't know much about it either, and still they are the ones that are supposed to answer the questions about it, when all those pregnant people want some answers.

My problem is not with every persons right to choose abortion or not, no matter what the reason. My problem is with the message that is being sent out by offering this test to everyone. I've had this debate online with other people, I've seen it being debated on TV, and it's scary how little people know.

I asked a friend the other day about how they had received the offer. She told me that she had gotten a short letter about that she had the right to do the test and when she had to do it. She did it, because she wouldn't want a baby with Down Syndrome, she said. She does not know what Down Syndrome is.

Another person said that it's for the sake of the baby, as a life with Down Syndrome is not a life. A person with Down Syndrome that gave her view on the test, said that it makes her sad that some people claim that her life is not worth living.

Keep on offering the test to women over 35. And sure, offer them this new NT than the older one where test of amniotic fluid was included in the first phase. But do not offer it to everyone! That looks very close to eugenics to me. And it's discriminating towards people with Down Syndrome, as the state is basically saying that they and their way of living is not as good as someone else's.

Who decides what's normal and what is not? Who decides what life is a better life than another?