Leo van Doesburg

A CALL TO PROTECT THE DIGNITY OF PEOPLE WITH DOWN On the 21 st of March, we celebrated the World Down Syndrome Day at the European Parliament . The activities to honour this day started last week, when the Brussels office of ECPM took part in the  Socks' Battle  that was organized to draw attention to the rights of people, and especially children with Down syndrome. Yesterday, ECPM-MEP Marek Jurek co-hosted with MEP Miroslav Mikolášik a well - attended conference with the title: "Are we in Europe doing our best for the health of people with trisomy 21?" The Conference was addressed by the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani as well as MEP Pieter Liese. During this conference, I was invited to tell about the NIPT Test that is a serious threath to the future existence of people with Down Syndrome. I also presented a statement we prepared against the use of prenatal testing techniques that target Down syndrome in collaboration with the World Youth A...

On Friday, the 22 nd of May, the Irish citizens will vote in a referendum aimed at amending the Irish Constitution so as to redefine marriage as being between any of two persons, regardless of their sex. The promoters for the redefinition of marriage, are introducing the referendum as a grass root movement. The media mentions that no less than 80% of the Irish citizens will vote in the referendum for such an amendment in the constitution. It is proudly announced that the big majority for a YES vote would mark the first time that same-sex marriage legalization would be legalized by popular vote.  This would also “mark yet another defeat for the Catholic church and the political power it used to wield in Ireland ” (trying to unjustly frame marriage as a catholic and not a societal issue) However, increasing concerns have been raised by the question whether this is a “home-grown phenomenon” or rather a more carefully-orchestrated and massively well-funded assault on the nat...