Richard Dawkins apologises for causing storm with Down's syndrome tweet

[hrmjustin]

Press Association

Richard Dawkins has apologised for the "feeding frenzy" triggered by his tweet claiming it would be immoral to carry on with a pregnancy if the mother knew the foetus had Down's syndrome.

The geneticist's latest Twitter row broke out after he responded to another user who said she would be faced with "a real ethical dilemma" if she became pregnant with a baby with Down's syndrome.

Dawkins tweeted: "Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice."

In a fuller explanation on his website – entitled Abortion & Down Syndrome: Apology for Letting Slip the Dogs of Twitterwar – the author tried to set the record straight.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/21/richard-dawkins-apologises-downs-syndrome-tweet

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. There is a significant difference

Between "If your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down's baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child's own welfare." (emphasis added) and "Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice."

The first says "might be immoral", the second "would be immoral". The two statements are not equivalent.

And for him to claim that he was misunderstood is simply dishonest. His statement was quite clear -- that he cannot say what he meant is not our fault.

[cbayer]

2. "Apology for Letting Slip the Dogs of Twitterwar" says it all.

He never really apologizes for these things.

He just finds a way to say that he was right, just misunderstood and everyone else is pretty much an idiot.

Then he goes into longwinded explanations that no one ever seems to actually read.

He is becoming trite.

[Starboard Tack]

3. I accept his apology as an act of contrition

None of us are perfect. And a little humility hurts no one,
I don't think he is a proponent of eugenics, but he does tend to put his foot in his mouth a lot, especially on Twitter. Why he uses it is beyond me.
Hopefully, he has learned something from this experience.

[hrmjustin]

4. He should delete h7d twitter account because he needs context when writing.

[Starboard Tack]

5. Probably a good idea.

Especially if it restricts one to 140 characters. I don't get the point of it.

[hrmjustin]

6. Twitter is good to follow news and organization news.

[goldent]

7. Well, he now has gotten two stories written about him on this subject

Maybe he can appologize for his weak appology and get a third! Hopefully he has a good agent for advice on how much exposure to seek.

[cbayer]

8. It would seem that his agent is doing a very good job indeed.

He gets tons of publicity and I don't think he cares if it is good or bad.