Haunting Echoes of Eugenics

Last fall, Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists argued for "active euthanasia" of significantly disabled newborns to spare parents emotional and financial burden.

Two years earlier, the Groningen Protocol emerged in the Netherlands; it proposed selection criteria for euthanizing babies and children with disabilities.

And across the United States, "futile care" policies have required that the most vulnerable give up their hospital beds -- and lives -- for those with more "potential."

In stark contrast to words such as "defective," "burdensome" and "futile" are the words of civil rights laws that liberate and defend.

The Americans With Disabilities Act recognizes disability as a natural part of the human experience that in no way should limit an individual's ability to participate fully in all aspects of society. The U.N. convention reaffirms that people with disabilities have both a right to life and a right to the effective enjoyment of that life on an equal basis with others.

On this 80th anniversary of Buck, let's not foolishly believe that victims of eugenics are an artifact of history. So long as we speak in terms of good genes and bad genes, recognize a life with a disability as an injury, and allow health policies to value some lives over others, we continue to create human rights violations every day.

Andrew J. Imparato is president and chief executive and Anne C. Sommers is the policy counsel of the American Association of People With Disabilities, based in Washington.