Intellectual Anschluss (all over again)

The following appeared in this week's edition of The Tablet. It is unbelievable how close this sounds to Nazism.

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

In Vienna

THE AUSTRIAN Supreme Court's decision that a gynaecologist who failed sufficiently to warn a pregnant woman that her baby might have Down's syndrome must be held financially responsible for the child's care has come in for widespread criticism in Austria, from the Church, Catholic associations and others outside the Church.
Bishop Klaus Kung of Sankt Polten, who has a degree in medicine and is responsible for family affairs in the Austrian bishops' conference, said that by signaling that handicapped life is a case for damages, the Supreme Court's decision is a disastrous sign that points in totally the wrong direction". (Well, they got something there!) The decision was, moreover, "arrogant", as only God could judge over life and death.

At an ultrasound examination in the twenty-third week of pregnancy the gynecologist noticed certain anomalies. He told the pregnant woman to have further tests but did not tell her that the anomalies could be the first signs of Down's syndrome. The woman waited until the thirty-second week before going for further tests and then the baby was diagnosed with Down's syndrome. By this time it was too late for an abortion. The mother claimed the doctor gave her "insufficient information" and the Supreme Court agreed with her. Her child is now nine years old. (End of the article)

What's she been doing for the last nine years? Guess it just got too much for her, poor thing. Of course, she could have given the child to adoption services, or foster parents, or left it in the turnstile of the convent of the sisters who take care of orphans. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the 1930's after a favoable plebiscite. (The German word used to describe this was "Anschluss.") With all the medical experimentation that Nazi doctors practiced, and the extermination of all those who were "unworthy of life" you'd think that we might have progressed. In this case it sounds like the Nazis have annexed the minds of the Austrian Supreme Court. I guess that regression rules there.