VATICAN CITY, AUG. 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- An abortion in Milan that killed a healthy twin fetus instead of her sibling with Down syndrome is a case of eugenics "imposing its law," says L'Osservatore Romano.
After it was discovered that the unborn baby with Down syndrome survived, a successive abortion later ended her life.
The Vatican's semi-official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is reporting the story in its Tuesday edition. The abortion was actually performed in June, but only recently made public.
According to L'Osservatore Romano, "eugenics is imposing its law." The article says the case can be attributed to "the culture of perfection that imposes the exclusion of all that does not appear beautiful, glowing, positive, captivating."
"What remains is emptiness, the desert of a life without content, though perfectly planned," the report continued.
No motive
The San Paolo hospital in Milan reported that the case was "a terrible fatality." The babies were in their third month of gestation.
The error occurred because the twin sisters changed positions in the womb between the doctors' examination and the abortion.
L'Osservatore Romano reported: "Two girls have died, assassinated as a consequence of selective abortion. A radical decision has brought about another abortion, that of the little sister that still had life." No one "has the right to eliminate another life. No person has the right to take the position of God. Not for any motive."
"It is an illegitimate decision, even though it is authorized by the law, as here in Italy," it continued.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Commission for Life, spoke with Vatican Radio today about the case.
He said: "All of us have to feel involved in this and many other cases that are repeated every day, to take on a new and different commitment for the respect of human life from its first moment, because these little ones share in the same dignity we have.
"And in the case that they have some sort of sickness, that simply means that they have more motive to be helped."
ZE07082708 - 2007-08-27