Russian Call For 'Postnatal Abortion' Sparks Furor Among Parents Of Disabled

February 08, 2010
By Claire Bigg, Lyubov Chizhova, Aleksandr Kulygin

In late December, Snezhana Mitina received a tearful phone call from her friend Svetlana. Sobbing, Svetlana explained she had just read a newspaper article calling for babies with mental disabilities to be killed at birth.

The author, Aleksandr Nikonov, used the word "debil" -- a deeply offensive term in Russian -- to characterize such children. He argued that parents should have the right to euthanize newborns diagnosed with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. the rest