Modern Eugenics in the Western World

In 2017, Iceland made headlines with the claim that Trisomy 21 (otherwise known as Down Syndrome) had been essentially eliminated in its country. Upon hearing this, many went to praise Iceland for supposedly eradicating a genetic condition widely known as incurable. Many presumed the country was on the edge of a medical miracle or a scientific goldmine; some believed the world would soon be wonderstruck by a bright new future for individuals and families affected by Down Syndrome. 

The statement made by Iceland was technically true; in fact, since 2003, the number of children born with Trisomy 21 has decreased by almost 100%, making Iceland the world record holder for the fewest cases of Down Syndrome. What this statement fails to disclose, however, is that Iceland is in no possession of a medical miracle. Iceland has no cure for Down Syndrome, because there simply isn’t one. There is, as of 2025, no cure for Down Syndrome anywhere in the world. In fact, the only known way to eliminate Down Syndrome is to eliminate those who have it. This is the truth of what Iceland has done. They have not eradicated a genetic condition, but instead eradicated the people who possess it. Iceland has eliminated Down Syndrome by aborting almost 100% of fetuses who test positive for a possible extra copy of chromosome 21. 

Whilst Iceland is the most notable example of this method of elimination, they are in no way the only nation to do so. Genetic screening for Down Syndrome became widely available in developed countries in the early 2000s. Since then, every nation that performs genetic screening and has legal abortion practices has seen a massive decline in live Down Syndrome births. In the United States, an estimated 67-85% of pregnancies that test positive for Trisomy 21 are terminated, with France having a similar rate at 77%. In the United Kingdom and Canada, this number is around 90%. Many other countries follow with similar rates. In all of these cases, a clear majority of positive Down Syndrome tests result in a terminated pregnancy, oftentimes by the recommendation of medical professionals. These numbers reveal a terrifying truth that both supporters and adversaries of abortion must wrestle with: eugenics is alive and well within our societies. 

The premise of eugenics is to interfere with the natural process of reproduction to eliminate heritable traits society regards as “undesirable”. One of the most infamous eugenics initiatives was, of course, the acts committed by the Nazis in 1930s Germany. The Nazis would forcefully sterilize or abort the children of those not perceived as positive contributors to society, oftentimes disabled and mentally ill people, as well as impoverished or racialized groups. The Nazis designated these groups of people as “life undeserving of life”, a thought process which believed being a human life did not inherently give a person the right to live. While no supporter of abortion today would ever claim their support for eugenics, the premise of “life undeserving of life” is alive and well- a backbone of the abortion industry to this day- and termination rates of Down Syndrome are indisputable proofs of this. 

The reason that abortion is often recommended for fetuses who test positive for Down Syndrome falls into two categories. The first is that parenting a child with Down Syndrome would be too difficult for parents to handle, and that their lives would be changed for the worse with this child in it. The second is that, because Down Syndrome is an intellectual and developmental disability, children with the condition can not handle life themselves, and that a life with Down Syndrome is worse than the lack of a life at all. Both of these reasons share the same end consensus; Down Syndrome is more of a hindrance in this world than it is worth, both for the person who has the condition and for the people who surround them. A simplified version of this consensus would be: A life with Down Syndrome is a life undeserving of life. Behold, a piece of Nazi propaganda we carry with us to this day. 

Down Syndrome was used as the example here because of its astronomically high abortion rates, but it's not alone in this topic. Many other disability diagnoses, such as Thalassemia Major, Cystic Fibrosis, certain neural tube defects, and more, lead to abortion the vast majority of the time. That is unacceptable. Make no mistake, these babies are being aborted because they have discoverable traits that we, as a society, have determined as “undesirable”. These babies are being aborted because people have decided for them that their lives aren’t worth any effort. 

While many find it easy to ignore the truth of this situation by hiding behind the stopgap of “it’s still the mother’s choice”, I, personally, can’t quite get past this fact; doctors are deciding on mass scales that death is better for the disabled than even a shot at life. This is a terrifying form of ableism, a societal prejudice that runs so deep that it takes people’s lives and markets it as freedom for women. This is not freedom for women; it is entrapment, abuse, and genocide towards the disabled. Iceland proudly proclaims that it is on the brink of destroying an entire group of people, as though the extermination of said people is a symbol of national virtue. There are approximately 5.4 million people with Down Syndrome in our world, and we are supposed to seek joy in the possibility of their non-existence. We are supposed to see the annihilation of a disabled group of people as the international standard for women’s rights. We are supposed to all be okay with eugenics. I am not. 

Here is the truth: no one gets to decide for another person whether their life is worth living.  Not doctors, not governments, not militaries, and no, not even mothers. We have no right to deem fetuses in the womb worthy or unworthy of life; they are alive; there is nothing more they must do to be “worthy”. Human beings do not have to be healthy to be deserving of human rights; they do not have to be rich, or mentally stable, or of a certain race, or of a certain gender. They do not have to be wanted by their parents; they have no responsibility to fill a parent's “criteria” of what makes for a wanted child. Human beings are not commodities. We do not get to pick and choose which characteristics earn the right to exist in this world. Interfering with the natural process of reproduction to eliminate disabilities is the same evil that has plagued some of the darkest periods of history. We can repackage eugenics as much as we want; we can use clean language, market it to liberals and leftists, call it “mercy killing” or “humane”, that doesn’t change the truth: We have decided certain genetic traits are undesirable, and we are quite literally exterminating people on mass scales because of it. That is not only evil, it is genocidal. 

If you claim to care about human rights yet do not think this is an issue, your idea of “human rights” is conditional. You do not care for all humans, only the ones who fit certain social standards. If you see children with disabilities as simply a perpetual burden to their parents or to the world, your thoughts are laced with extreme ableism. If you believe you have the right to determine whether somebody else’s life is fulfilling enough to allow them to live, you are no friend to humanitarian causes. Human life is human life. There are no exceptions. Disabled people deserve life. They have earned life because they are human. Celebrating the near-extinction of disabled groups is a high-five to the most horrific eugenics initiatives of all time. One day, historians will look back on this and see it as the great evil that it is, but for that to happen, we must refuse to participate in this act of annihilation. We must celebrate the lives of disabled children and uplift their parents. We must love the babies that are born differently and believe in the beauty and power they hold. We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and we must speak loudly and clearly; eugenics is never okay, and we will not let these crimes go unaccounted for. Disabled rights are human rights, and yes, those rights begin in the womb.