Professor Richard Dawkins has Emeritus status at The University of Oxford. Emeritus status is a great accolade and it exists to recognise and honour academics who have had a distinguished career. We would like you to consider whether you feel that a person in this position should be using his status to engender hate towards women, who have had a baby with Down's Syndrome, and towards people with Down's Syndrome.

I'm sure you are aware of the comments he made on air to Brendan O'Connor, on the radio station RTE, that Dawkins considers it 'immoral' for women to bring a baby with Down's Syndrome into the world. As a woman who did just that, his comments are terrifying. They create a hateful ideal about women like us. Furthermore, Dawkins' unfounded comments that children with Down's Syndrome cause 'suffering' in the world is the most outrageous, misleading, lie based on nothing but his own prejudiced views. He even acknowledges that there is no evidence to suggest this, aside from the fact he 'thinks it is plausible'. The exact opposite is the truth. Real, lived experience shows how children with Down's Syndrome enrich and positively affect the lives of their family. 

Dawkins admits that he doesn't actually know anyone with Down's Syndrome. That there is no evidence or research to back up his comments. Yet, he continues to spread this vile propaganda that seeks to alienate people with Down's Syndrome, create a hatred for their mothers and further persecute this minority community. 

Dawkins is engendering hate towards children with Down's Syndrome and their mothers. In light of these recent attempts at creating hate, I believe it is only fitting to ask Oxford University to re-consider Dawkins' Emeritus status. Should one of the United Kingdom's most respected establishments be supporting this kind of hate towards people with disabilities, and their families, through showing that they hold Dawkins in high regard? 

There is no place for hate like this in the United Kingdom and a man who seeks to perpetuate dangerous views does not deserve the accolade The University of Oxford bestowed upon him. Dawkins must be held to account for the hate he is peddling. His views are not only prejudiced and offensive, but untrue and create a dangerous precedent for hate towards our community. 

Revoke Professor Richard Dawkins' Emeritus status at The University of Oxford.

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