Are Humans with Disabilities Facing Extinction?

Explore the science and biblical view on the critical topics of abortion, euthanasia, stem cell harvesting, human cloning, and mercy killing in the Sanctity of Life DVD Pack.

When you start with God’s Word as the ultimate authority, there is no choice but to respect, value, and honor all human life. Here in the West, the dignity and sanctity of human life has long been under attack. This is seen most starkly in how our society treats the unborn—with over 60 million recorded murders in their mothers’ wombs since 1973 in the United States.1

Of course, human life is valuable and precious from the very beginning, “fearfully and wonderfully” (Psalms 139:14) made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

“People with Congenital Disabilities Are Facing Extinction”

A 2017 article shared these sobering statistics:

• In Britain, 90% of babies with Down Syndrome are aborted.
• In Iceland, 100% of all those diagnosed with Down Syndrome have been aborted in the past several years.
• Denmark is expected to be “Down Syndrome-free” by 2030.

It’s statistics like these that led a member of British Parliament, Lord Kevin Shinkwin, who lives with brittle bone disease, to state during a debate in parliament:

People with congenital disabilities are facing extinction. If we were animals, perhaps we might qualify for protection as an endangered species. But we are only human beings with disabilities, so we do not.

What an appalling truth—we legislate to protect endangered animals, but we callously allow the murder of babies in their mothers’ wombs because they will be born with a disability. Abortion is really a form of child sacrifice to the god of self! According to statistics reported later in that same article, people are choosing to abort their children for a range of disabilities, including something as minor as cleft lip/palate (usually easily fixable with a surgery). This is the kind of world we get when sinful, fallen man does what’s right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25) instead of turning to God’s Word as the foundation of all truth. It’s a harsh, cold, and murderous world that doesn’t stand up for those who have no voice but instead destroys them.

It’s a harsh, cold, and murderous world that doesn’t stand up for those who have no voice but instead destroys them.

But when we start with God’s Word, we get an entirely different picture of human life—including the lives of those with disabilities. All humans are made in the very image of the Creator, and deliberately killing a person is murder. We don’t have the authority to decide whether or not we want someone to live—only God has that authority.

You can learn more about the sanctity of life in our Sanctity of Life DVD Pack, available from our online store, or through the materials provided at the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made exhibit at our Creation Museum.

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team. This article we previously published as part of Ken Ham’s daily blogs.