How do Chinese authorities deal with individuals who suffer Down's syndrome? Can euthanasia be practised on a retarded teenager?
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 May 1989 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | CHN0883 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, How do Chinese authorities deal with individuals who suffer Down's syndrome? Can euthanasia be practised on a retarded teenager?, 1 May 1989, CHN0883, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6abc72.html [accessed 1 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The first care-centres for the mentally retarded in China were opened in Shangai, 1979, and Beijing, 1980. ["Family Planning in China", in Current History, September 1986, p. 281.] Special schools for the mentally retarded were reported in 1986 to be confined to selected urban areas, sometimes as a supplement of schools for the deaf and mute. [Ibid.] A growing concern among authorities for the mentally handicapped is reported to be taking place in the eighties; the government is allegedly attempting to mitigate factors that contribute to the high risk of mental handicap occurrence. [Ibid.] The province of Gansu was reported to have passed a law in November 1988 forbidding mentally retarded women from having children; the law requires sterilization of mentally retarded women before obtaining a marriage licence, as well as forced termination of pregnancy among mentally retarded women bearing children. [Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: U.S. Department of State, 1989), p. 769.] No reports of euthanasia or killing of people suffering Down's syndrome or mental handicaps could be found among the sources presently available to the IRBDC.
