In a multi-ethnic society, we must be exposed to diversity in order to accept it without fear or hostility. No matter how friendly or open-minded we may be, awareness and exposure are the only way to make something 'new' and 'different' become normal and even mundane.
If this is true of ethnic and cultural differences, it is even more true of the differences that originate in disabilities and medical conditions.
Most of us cannot imagine how life with a disability could ever feel 'normal'. Yet disability advocates attest that the biggest obstacles to a happy and comfortable life stem from the prejudices and discrimination of the wider community.
How many of us have positive, normalising experiences of disability on which we can draw? I have to admit that I can only recall meeting two or three people with disabilities in my lifetime.
So perhaps we should not be surprised at the data released by the British Department of Health on 4 July, which details abortions performed for foetal abnormalities over the past decade. It revealed that in 2010 alone there were 482 foetuses aborted for Down syndrome, 181 for musculoskeletal abnormalities such as club foot, 128 for spina bifida, and seven for cleft lip and palate.
While these conditions may be abnormal in a medical sense, abortion is not a medically indicated response. One can only surmise that our sense of social abnormality plays a greater role in the decision to abort. With a scarcity of positive experiences to draw on, we cannot consider disability and other medical conditions to be within the range of 'normal'.
I've never met anyone with Down syndrome. I don't know anyone who has had a cleft palate. There is nothing in my experience to normalise these conditions.
For many of us, the disabilities and medical conditions subject to abortion in Britain and most other developed countries will remain unfamiliar anomalies; notable deviations from the norm. What kind of decision will we make if faced with an unfavourable diagnosis for our own children?
A 1999 literature review focusing on England and Europe found that 91–93 per cent of pregnancies testing positive to Down syndrome were aborted. With comparable regimes for testing and abortion, there