"What concerned me about the advice to abort Madison was the immediate moral demotion that took place in the eyes of her family [âŠ] Comments like "it's not worth having it," "you can just abort it and try again," or "you're going to abort it, right?" reveal a far more disturbing attitude: that Madison was suddenly unworthy of being brought into existence. [âŠ] Jackie's family had already come to regard Madison as part of the family â as a person with moral status and worth. They were then willing to retract this moral status and advocate the destruction of a human fetus because of a trait that, like race and gender, is utterly irrelevant for the ascription of moral status or personhood. In aborting Madison, the intention was not to prevent a disability or illness [âŠ] rather it was "to prevent the birth of a human being who will have one of these undesired characteristics."."
The Replaceable Fetus: A Reflection on Abortion and Disability by Bertha Alvarez Manninen
