European meeting to be held to raise awareness of “the eugenic current of European society”
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
A meeting to be held in Strasbourg, France hosted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), this week will address the alleged “eugenic current of European society” and the subject of “Eugenics and human rights, issues of prenatal screening.”
Population control has become a major issue in recent years due to major fears surrounding a growing world population especially amongst some of the most impoverished nations, as evidenced by a UK-funded program in India.
Currently, the highest court in Europe is considering a complaint from a woman who claims that she was not given a prenatal screening which would have revealed her daughter’s Down syndrome and thus allow her to choose to abort her child.
This Thursday the roundtable discussion hosted by PACE will be held with European associations of individuals with Down syndrome in response to the case currently being considered by the European Court of Human Rights.
There have been many heated statements on the subject, with some saying that the real topic surrounds “how European society defines humanity.”
Thus, the campaign “Stop Eugenics Now” has been created, along with a declaration entitled “Eugenics is not a human right.”
The case this campaign is speaking out against involves a woman from Latvia who gave birth to her daughter in June of 2002, just to find out she had Down syndrome.
The woman, Anita Kruzmane, is arguing that she should have received a blood screening test as a part of her “prenatal care” regimen in order to allow her to make a more informed decision in going forward with having her child.
One of the groups participating in the case, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) – which is associated with the American Center for Law and Justice – is also helping organize Thursday’s meeting.
In addition, the ECLJ is acting as an interviewer in the court case and seems to be on the more critical end of the spectrum.
For instance, Gregor Puppinck, the director of the ECLJ, which based out of Stasbourg, said that the meeting to be held on Thursday “is intended to raise the awareness of institutions about the eugenic current of European society.”
“This is the first time that so many organizations, dedicated to persons with Down syndrome and disabilities, have mobilized at the European level to denounce eugenics and discrimination,” he added.
As evidence of “the eugenic current of European society” Puppinck pointed to 96% of unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome being aborted, although he didn’t cite a source for this statistic, nor did CNS News.
Another critic, Italian legislator Luca Volonte, said that there are plans to submit a resolution to the PACE which would restate that nations are obligated toward protect people with disabilities.
“Under European and international law, States have an obligation to protect the life and health of every person, in particular people with disabilities,” said Puppinck.
In response to Kruzmane’s complaint, the ECLJ submitted a written statement to the European Court of Human Rights asking, “Does the Convention guarantee a right to eugenics for parents, and in particular to the procedure of prenatal screening-elimination of sick or disabled fetuses? If so, does the State have a positive obligation in this regard?”
“People with disabilities, like other categories of people in other times, today have an obligation to demonstrate their humanity in order to enjoy the protection of human rights,” Puppinck said.
“Faced with this, we must work, not only to humanize our view of disability, but also to ‘rehumanize’ human rights, because there is a tendency to develop a very abstract and disembodied idea of man, an idea which may finally prove inhuman, as demonstrated by the consecration of a ‘right to eugenics,’” Puppinck concluded.
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Madison Ruppert is a Los Angeles-based independent journalist and researcher as well as the founder, owner, administrator and editor of EndtheLie.com. He has no affiliations with any government agencies, political parties, non-governmental organizations, or economic schools. He is available for freelance writing assignments and appearances or interviews in any format. He can be reached by emailing