Vatican City, Sep 2, 2010 / 19:16 pm
According to an Italian neonatal doctor, “pedophobia”—the fear of children—is an obstacle to the realization of the full rights of children today. In an article published in L'Osservatore Romano to mark the 20th anniversary of a U.N. convention for children's rights, he made a case for making children, born and unborn, more accepted in society.
Doctor Carlo Bellieni is a frequent contributor to L'Osservatore Romano on issues of health care, especially bioethics. In a Thursday article to mark the anniversary of the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child, he addressed a recent report that said children are still "invisible" two decades after its adoption. The 1990 U.N. convention promoted 54 articles outlining special safeguards and care for the children of the world.
Building off of a May 2010 article in the U.K. medical journal "The Lancet" that claimed the child remains "invisible" in today's world, Dr. Bellieni wrote that this is due to a lack of common policies between nations that ensure the protection of children. But above all, he said, it is due to “the fact that we breathe anti-natal propaganda everywhere, we transform the child into a 'right,' we accept it only if it is 'up to measure,' before and after it's born."
Based on today's worldview, Dr. Bellieni extrapolated, the child only has rights if it meets certain set standards, an idea that he called a "terrible premise for universal rights."