Compulsion and Choice

It wasn't going to last. Just a couple of weeks after UKIP was riding high on a wave of sympathy, following the removal of a child from a UKIP voting couple, they have come crashing to the ground because of one Geoffrey Clark, who thinks we should bring in compulsory abortion for Down's Syndrome and spina bifida to reduce the national debt. He also thinks that free euthanasia advice should be offered to over-80's. UKIP tried to back him at first and then ditched him, in the face of shocked protests from Mencap and the media in general. Someone in Labour or Conservative HQ will be watching in silent satisfaction at this mess - I have no doubt that since UKIP's resurgence, the party nerds will have been trawling UKIP websites looking for someone foolish enough to catch out in this fashion. And Geoffrey Clark has been well and truly caught.

On the surface, I agree with that shock and indigation at his views. It's especially depressing after a wonderful summer of the Paralympics that we're back to auld claes and porridge as far as the disabled are concerned. Another part of me is feeling profoundly uncomfortable with the whole scenario.

It's this. The abortion rate for  DS in the UK is round about 92%. Apart from the fact that this means that Geoffrey Clark's master plan to reduce the national debt would be a failure, it also means that the only difference between Geoffrey Clark's views and the general public's, is compulsion. It is not Geoffrey Clark's values that are really being questioned; it is the fact that he would make a common choice, mandatory.

 What is the actual choice for someone carrying a child with DS? There's abortion. Or, if they choose to have the child, years of fighting with the state for help and support. A piss poor amount of money going into research for the condition and bleak employment prospects. A choice has been made, but it's been made by our society, not by the parent of the child. The choice that they are offered, is in reality, just short of compulsion.

Again, take the dismantling of the NHS. On what pretext was that done? Why, choice. The right to choose a GP, a hospital, a private provider. In reality the government has chosen to bomb the NHS and we will shortly have to chose which health care insurer that we are going with, because it shure ain't going to be the government. And don't expect your National Insurance contributions to go down correspondingly.

Chesterton once said, ' To admire mere choice is to refuse to choose'. In saying this he identified what has become a growing phenomenon; the idea that choice trumps all. It's a good tactic for shutting down debate by branding those who question the values behind a choice as intolerant, and it's a good tool in government for shunting people in a direction they might not otherwise take, by portraying it as a choice.

I do not disagree with those who slam Geoffrey Clark on mandatory abortion. I am just so disappointed that the debate went no further. So much went unsaid this week, and an opportunity was missed to examine our own values with regard to those with DS. If we had done, maybe we would have realised how shockingly close our own views are to his. And maybe we would have made an informed, responsible choice to turn away from them.