Posted on 07/24/2014 1:20:20 PM PDT by Morgana
LifeNews recently published an article by Mark Leach about what happened when his baby was born with Down syndrome. Leach describes how he and his wife felt abandoned by the medical establishment and how the hospital gave them outdated and scant information about Down syndrome.
In response to his experience, and the experiences of many other Down syndrome parents, he has become the bioethics specialist at the National Center for Prenatal & Postnatal Down Syndrome Resources, and works to get positive, life-affirming information into the hands of new Down syndrome parents and those who go through prenatal testing for Down syndrome. Leach says:
Parents have long described receiving the [Down syndrome] diagnosis negatively. A study of moms reported awful stories both pre- and post-natally. A study just last year reported that parents have a negative experience by a ratio of 2.5 to 1–so for every 100 sets of parents who had a positive experience with their health team, there were 250 who had a negative one.
In the book Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America, researcher Rayna Rapp documents three such negative experiences.
One mother, whose child with Down syndrome, Amelia, was four at the time of the interview, related the following:
So they diagnosed Amelia right away, on the delivery table. She was barely out, I barely got a chance to catch my breath or marvel at my first baby when the doctor pours this bad news all over us. “She’s got Down syndrome,” he says to us, very coldly. And after he tells us about blood testing and confirmations and all this stuff, we say to him, “But what does this mean? What should we expect?” And just as coldly he says, “Don’t expect much. Maybe she’ll grow up to be an elevator operator. Don’t expect much.” We clung to each other and cried. (Rapp 263)
h down syndromeThis appalling treatment no doubt added to the confusion and grief that the parents felt over finding out that their baby would face unforeseen challenges in life. If this doctor was so callous towards them after the birth of their baby, one wonders how he would treat his patients who tested positive for a Down syndrome child and were still pregnant. Would he push them towards abortion?
Another mother spoke about how angry her doctor was when she gave birth to a baby with Down syndrome:
My doctor was so angry with me. He couldn’t believe I didn’t take that test. “How could you let this happen?” He yelled at me. “You’re 40!” But I think something else: even though he’s mentally retarded, he could be a good person… It’s just like finding out you have a new job. You just do it, and you accept it, that’s all there is to it. (Rapp 263)
Even more heartless was the reaction of a third doctor, to another couple whose baby had Down syndrome:
She was tiny, but she was great, like she was just the cutest thing. And then my husband comes in, and he looked weird and immediately he said, “The baby, something is wrong…” And all I could think of was that she’s blind, I guess that was probably the worst thing I could ever have imagined. But the doctor had just called him and told him that Rose was a Mongoloid. We took a half hour to get it out of him, like he couldn’t finish telling me the story, and then the doctor came in and said, “What your husband just told you is right.” He was, like, very down on the whole thing, very negative. He said, “The only blessing is that they don’t tend to live very long.” So he thought it would be a good thing if our new baby would die. What more can I say? (Rapp 266 – 267)
These responses by doctors show how vitally important the work of the National Center for Prenatal & Postnatal Down Syndrome Resources is. Pro-lifers should support families with children who have Down syndrome or other disabilities, and support organizations that help them.
I could not agree more, caww!
What’s your point?
His point is that he believes some people are more deserving of life than others. I think his point is both obvious and sick .
I see GOD thru that beautiful smile and face. May God keep her in his care. That is an Angel right there!
What a beautiful little girl!
Prayers for your cousin, and prayers and ((hugs)) for you.
Do you REALLY need to ask that question? You know better than that..........
Ever!"
Then you're ignorant, and what in the hell did you put "child" in quotations for??
My husband's aunt has Down's. Her family loved her dearly when she was being brought up, and we adore her now. Maybe the reason for those Down's parents' expressions is because they expect to come in contact with people like you.
Also, you say you're not totally pro-life. Under what circumstances do you support murder?
Too lazy and stupid to test? Most older women are perfectly aware that they do run a higher risk of having a child with Down Syndrome.
Some chose not to test, because they would not abort a child with DS. There are simple blood tests which do not pose a risk to the developing baby, but these are followed up with invasive tests, amniocentesis or CVS, that do risk miscarriage. There are false positives and false negatives. It can be a very informed decision not to test.
BTW, testing the father isn’t going to detect DS in the child. And some husbands and fathers would not abandon their wives for having a baby with DS.
You’re coming across contemptuous, ignorant, intolerant, and small-minded. Maybe you would abort any child with DS; maybe you could never find the grace to be happy with a child with DS, but you aren’t everyone.
And keep in mind that if you have a perfectly vetted, perfectly healthy baby, no one is immune to bad luck, illness, and accident, and you and yours may have to learn to cope with disability, far too late for abortion, and way too early for euthanasia.
“I’ve experienced this kind of attitude from a doctor. It’s ugly.”
Yes, I have as well. I was 37 and pregnant with my third child. All I heard is “Your elderly for childbearing” and the “Baby could have all kinds of problems”. I had amnio and they tested for over 20 different diseases. The baby was fine, but because of all the tests, I started bleeding and almost lost her.
Thanks - I actually posted that thread nine years ago, and Harvey died a few months later...69 years of age for Downs is pretty remarkable, from what we understand.
It's funny how the unconditional love of a mother is universally cherished as one of the noblest things in human existence. And then when a mother actually manifests unconditional love, she gets trashed as a moral reprobate for welcoming and loving an innocent child who is not a member of the elite: the Planned, Perfect and Privileged.
I declined to take several of the usual round of prenatal tests even though I was an "elderly primagravida" at 38, because, as I told my doc, I considera them a form of hostile surveillance. "Hostile" they are, because when defects are discovered, it almost invariably results in a fatal attack on the baby before birth. That's the intended result of an antihuman protocol.
I fired by first OB/GYN, who ried to push me into an amniocentesis. You should truly give a second thought to your thesis that hostile prenatal surveillance is morally mandated. --- What a thoroughly perverted value system.
According to your own "worst-case scenario" statistics --- mothers at age 45--- such women are still 96% certain of giving birth to children who do not have Down Syndrome.
If I had the choice of living with either a Down Syndrome child or a Down Syndrome baby-slayer, I'd choose the child. They are much more pleasant and more gracious company than their would-be exterminators.
"Past prime time" mothers are also at a much higher risk of miscarriage. That is why, not being stupid, they don't have the tests because it raises your risk even higher.
Yes, I do know about this and to answer the question, no, I did not.
I would not put my babies in more danger then they already were. All my babies were wanted and loved no matter what.
You see, that is what is wrong with your viewpoint. You have the idea that innocent humans are disposable. Like a jar that should be thrown away if it cracks.
You don't understand that the innocent should be cherished just because.
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That was my worry. It seems that the medical profession is often more concerned that a baby will have Down's than they are that it will be injured or worse. Modern medicine can be a good thing, but only if it is held to the Hippocratic Oath.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
my point is simple. The woman in the article is selfish and stupid and I have no sympathy for her feigned insult.
She refused genetic testing - both before and after conception - despite being told she was in a high-risk group. Her husband wasn’t offered testing either - evidenced by his surprise over the child’s physical appearance. Did she even show him the sonograms? or did she refuse them, too?
No pre-conception genetic counseling, no marriage counseling, no financial preparations, no home modifications, no therapists lined up, no psychological preparation. Completely irresponsible behavior for a 40 year old woman. Just a big fat, deal with it - to both the child and to the husband.
Do I support abortions of convenience? No. But I do support the 2% of abortions that are performed for legitimate reasons and I’m sure other pro-lifers do, too.
Do I think all Down’s Syndrome children should be ‘culled’ as a convenience? Absolutely not.
But I think both parents need to be involved in complicated pregnancies, not just one parent, because that child will be the financial and emotional responsibility of both, not just one, parent.
The woman in the article intentionally left her husband in the dark and left her doctor in the dark, to the detriment of her child. She is selfish and stupid.
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You're not a pro-lifer.
I don't know about JenB's brother, but I worked with a man who had all of the facial features associated with Down's, and a very slight speech impediment. I never discussed Down's with him, because it would have been rude. He was an optical engineer working for the second largest aerospace company in the US, and entrusted to represent the company in international contracts in Europe as well as in the US.
He owned entire apartment buildings for just some of his personal investments. He and I would laugh at you if you asked about government subsidies. He and I both paid enough in taxes to single-handedly support an entire bureaucrat's annual salary.
Everything is not always the way out looks on the surface.
“Legitimate” murder of innocents? No such thing.
No one who believes that is pro-life, regardless of what they claim.
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