Make your gift today!
Help keep Catholics around the world educated and informed.
Already donated? Log in to stop seeing these donation pop-ups.
Vatican diplomat decries ‘selective termination’ of unborn children with Down syndrome
March 21, 2026
» Continue to this story on Holy See Mission
CWN Editor's Note: Speaking at an event commemorating World Down Syndrome Day, a Vatican diplomat said that “discriminatory and eugenic practices linked to prenatal screening and the selective termination of pregnancies targeting babies diagnosed with Down syndrome must be firmly rejected.”
Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, said that “persons with Down syndrome are more than a diagnosis, more than a condition, and certainly more than the limits others may imagine.”
“All of them, like all of us, possess the same inherent dignity and sacred value, intentionally and lovingly imprinted by the Creator from the very first moment of conception,” he added. “Consequently, like everyone else, they hold the same fundamental rights.”
The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
For all current news, visit our News home page.
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
