Poland has an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, a putatively pro-life government, and a popular initiative to protect the lives of children suffering from genetic conditions like Down syndrome – so, why has it gone nowhere? Politicians candidly admit allowing sick children to survive would cost the state-run health care system too much money.
At Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, Polish author Marcin Rzegocki writes:
A report from an official parliamentary body, the Bureau of Parliamentary Analysis, stated that “adoption of this project will have negative social, legal, and even financial consequences.” The pro-life project was even called “inhuman” by a PiS deputy, Joanna Lichocka. According to a Polish state institution, the state cannot allow the sick to live, because it will prove too costly to the taxpayer-funded health care system. Thus, eventually the proposal was sent into parliamentary limbo.
You can read his whole, articulate article here.
(Photo credit: PinkStock Photos, D. Sharon Pruitt. CC BY 2.0.)
