"The Worship of Retardation"

"Given that Palin had complete foreknowledge of her child's severe disability yet nevertheless chose to have it, it is hard not to see her choice as anything less [than the 'worship of retardation.']"

Professor Robert George comments that this blog post "by someone named Nicholas Provenzo at something called the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism, states a view that is widely held by many liberals of my acquaintance and some extreme libertarians (which, I gather, is what Provenzo is), but rarely spoken aloud.  Provenzo is stating what many think, but aren't quite yet willing to say.  In effect, he holds that children with Down's Syndrome are Lebensunwertes Leben--lives unworthy of life.  Reading this comment should cause us to dedicate ourselves even more deeply to the great and urgent cause of protecting the weakest and most vulnerable members of the human family."

"As a profound counterwitness to Provenzo's comment, I'm linking the text of a lecture by the great Leon Kass that he presented at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  It is a warning to us that the eugenics mentality has indeed taken hold again in the elite sector of the culture, and reminding us of its consequences.  We must resist it, and fight against it, with all our strength."

UPDATE:  I inadvertently caused some confusion in my attempt to be provocative by quoting that part of Provenzo's comments dealing with "worship of retardation." Robert George writes:  "Just to be clear, what many people of my acquaintance agree with is the proposition that the retarded, when detected in utero, should be aborted.  This is the idea of eugenic abortion which Dr. Kass so powerfully attacks.  I do not think that many people buy into  Provenzo's nutty rhetoric about "the worship of retardation."  Even committed eugenicists don't typically believe that people who do not abort retarded children are "worshipping." retardation.  Their claim is that families, society, and even the mentally retarded children themselves are better off when the children are aborted."

'