Save the Baby Birds, But Not the Baby Humans?

 

The March 2023 edition of Smithsonian magazine contains an article about the efforts of a town in Iceland to save baby puffins ("Make Way for Pufflings"). 

It's an interesting read, and I certainly have a fondness for animals - the Franciscan in me.

At one point the article notes that chick production had been "ticking up," in recent years, and despite a "dramatic drop in 2022 ... it still surpassed the 'abysmal horror' years when almost no chicks survived." 

All well and good for the puffins. I applaud the efforts to save them.

 But as I read I couldn't help thinking of the situation in Iceland for babies with Down Syndrome. 

According to reports, pregnant women in Iceland who take prenatal tests that show their babies have Down Syndrome are overwhelmingly choosing to abort those babies. It's not all of those women, and some women don't take the tests, so some babies with Down Syndrome are still being born. 

But many are being killed. 

We are currently experiencing "abysmal horror years" in Iceland when it comes to those human babies.

Imagine if the same concern being shown for the puffins was shown for the babies?

     

Pax et bonum