Making the invisible visible
Berlinde Debruyckere ‘ Making the invisible visible’ was the title of the spina bifida conference 2018 in Delhi. I took the same title for my talk on the right to life for children with spina bifida and Hydrocephalus because the untreated children are often not reaching the official statistics. It may concern 80% of the cases world-wide. Phot Dieter Telemans Our contemporary world looks for ways to get rid of our children. Prenatal selection, high cost of treatment combined with poverty, even euthanasia and primary prevention contribute to make one of the most neglected world health problems invisible. Only primary prevention is ethically clean. And as long as our children remain invisible, funding for treatment, primary prevention and research will be insufficient. I t all depends on each other. Exclusion, segregation and elimination are ways we cope with what threatens us or what differs from us. The world mostly turns its head away and denies pain and suff