In defense of Arcadi Espada

The statements of Arcadi Espada on a television show about parents who, knowing that the embryo has genetic abnormalities or is susceptible to an increased risk of metabolic or neurological disorders, carry the pregnancy to term, have led to harassment which far exceeds the standards of criticism that even he, a man who lives and writes upriver, is bound to endure.

In an action that turns harassment into institutional persecution, the Social Affairs Council (Generalitat of Catalonia) has denounced Espada for an alleged hate crime against people with Down syndrome. Even if it's demoralizing, let's clarify it once again: Espada has never spoken of "people with Down syndrome", so he can hardly have proposed his extermination, as his haters maintain.

What Espada raises (often, by the way, asking himself also) alludes to the extra cost derived from a necessarily extraordinary attention. That is to say, who assumes the invoice of that "reproductive freedom". In any case, if anything can be inferred from this reflection of Espada is the inalienable mandate to provide all people born, including of course those suffering from Down syndrome, a decent existence.

In this debate, the biologist and essayist Richard Dawkins considers that "aborting because a diagnosis of amniocentesis of Down syndrome has been obtained is no worse reason to abort than to do it just because you feel like it". And, as the philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer said, the discussion on bioethical issues that concern abortion deals with what "people practice in the privacy of clinics".

But silence, and taboos, are always enemies of freedom. The fact that government institutions do not have among their priorities to stimulate this debate, which is otherwise usual in the field of moral philosophy and bioethics, speaks of the negligence that dominates them. Now, criminally prosecute who has been his introducer in Spain is a vile abuse of authority that in the case of the Generalitat, also reeks of revenge.

Not in vain, Espada is one of the Spanish intellectuals who has most effectively fought the nationalisms, and not only in words: promoter of the manifesto that inspired the creation of political party Ciudadanos, to its effort is also the platform Libres e Iguales (Free and Equals), the only entity civic movement that was mobilized in the streets of Catalonia against the 9-N referendum, antecedent of 1-0. The complaint of the Generalitat is added to the complaint filed on March 1, 2019, also for an alleged hate crime, the Federation of Entities of Intellectual Disability of Catalonia (Dincat).

Also, last January, the Crida LGTBI platform, belonging to the associative plot of the extreme leftist for independency of Catalonia, denounced Espada for an alleged crime of incitement to hatred, and discrimination (homophobia), following the entry of his blog in El Mundo "Aznar, without complexes", in which he postulated that the ERC deputy in Congress Gabriel Rufián should be given the same coarse treatment that he reserves for his political opponents.

The signatories express our solidarity with Arcadi Espada, while we express our concern about the offensive of those who, basing themselves on the defense of morality, do not aspire but to accommodate public discussion to their petty interests, most often political.

Barcelone-New York-Luxembourg, March 14 2019