[GovernmentShrinker]

Exceptions are women like the one in the story, who already has a child and is trying yet again for a perfect one.

I don't see any indication that she is trying for a "perfect" child. There's a big difference between "not perfect" and "no possibility of ever being self-sufficient". Give that she has a 5-year-old daughter already, her decisions may be based on concern about saddling this daughter with responsibility for both aging parents and a physically-mentally disabled adult sibling at the same time -- not about herself.

I have a cyberacquaintance who is trying to have a second baby, and will not consider having a Down Syndrome baby (she wouldn't be having an abortion either, as she's doing IVF and would have chromosome testing before any embryo was transferred into her). But when she was trying for the first child (also IVF), she chose not to do any embryo screening, because she and her husband had decided that they would be happy to have a Down Syndrome baby. Their different thinking re the second baby is not based on selfishness, but on concern for their existing child.

Your value system may be very different, but I don't think it's fair to assume that everyone who chooses not to continue a Down Syndrome pregnancy is just a selfish jerk who's insisting on a "perfect" child as some sort of status accessory.

[teenyelliott]

Your value system may be very different, but I don't think it's fair to assume that everyone who chooses not to continue a Down Syndrome pregnancy is just a selfish jerk who's insisting on a "perfect" child as some sort of status accessory.

I am by no means a saint. But how can anyone look at the child pictured above and think that she is anything but beautiful? How does a mother just suck the brain out of her child, just because of Downs?

The people I have met who have Downs Syndrome are such peaceful souls. I would consider it a blessing to be given a child who has so much to teach all of us "normals".

[Mrs. Don-o]

That's true. People terminate their disabled unborn for a spectrum of reasons:

• "I don't like retards"
• "Everything is beautiful in it's own way, except cripples"
• "I l-o-o-o-ve good babies; I only kill bad babies"
• "Caring and patience and understanding are not the sort of thing I want to expose my other children to"
• "Think of the expense"
• "I'm pro-family, but my family would rather have a Golden Retriever"
• "My kids don't want a retard for a brother"
• "Live and let live, except for droolers"
• "My husband and I want our existing children grow up knowing they can always terminate family members who turn out to be a burden"
• "We're afraid he'd die"
• "We're afraid he'd live"

  You're so right. There's all kinds of different value systems. Not good or bad. Just different.