The current Austrian legislation on abortion places in doubt the right to life of disabled children, claimed Franz Joseph Huainigg, spokesman for the disabled of the Austrian Volkspartei (VP) in a recent briefing. Huainigg especially pointed his finger at the “eugenic indication” of paragraph 97 of Austria’s law on abortion, according to which abortion can be practiced on children for whom there is a presumption that they could be born disabled. Such abortion, moreover, can be practiced until shortly before birth, without any penal consequence. According to the spokesman, this provision, combined with a recent sentence of the Austrian Supreme Court that called disabled children a “financial liability”, is translated into a “great pressure on doctors and parents”. It therefore needs to be “abrogated in toto”. The possibility of aborting without penal consequences in the case of a presumed physical or mental handicap of the unborn child “means that a strong selection exists already at the beginning of life”, he said. Huainigg said that the possibility of aborting disabled foetuses also outside the three-month time limitation prescribed by the law ought to remain in exceptional cases, such as risk to the life of the mother. However, he added, a “comprehensive social debate” of the issue is needed. Huainigg also commented on euthanasia, warning of any form of legalization of the practice. The spokesman said that “the general conditions of the quality of life are crucial. I am convinced we don’t need any legislation on euthanasia as in Belgium or Holland. The protection of life to its natural end is a very important value for Austria, shared by wide cross-party political consensus, and should not be destroyed”.
