Abortion Remark Angers Students: UNC Prof Wary of Down Syndrome

The News & Observer ^ | 2/18/2008 | Samuel Spies

[Unassuaged]

Not to be heartless, but an analogy is dog breeding. The best dogs are created under a system where a large percentage of puppies are euthanized. People know that it is better for dog society. When one considers the puppy before dog society, there are very few ‘euthanized at birth’ puppies, comparatively. The result? Lots of puppies, many with problems. Worth it? you decide.
We are lucky to live in a time and place where we do not need to make many hard choices about who lives and dies.

[JenB]

One of my past students worked with mentally challanged kids her own age (11) This is what she told me once when I asked her about it. "I truly believe that the handicapped and mentally challenged people around us are all angels sent from heaven to help show us the way here on Earth."

Does it sound funny to you if I say that kind of sentiment strikes me as almost as appalling as the idiot professor in this article? My youngest brother has Down Syndrome. He is not an "angel" and he wasn't "sent here" to show us anything. He's a human being, made in the image and likeness of God, just as I am. He is perfect in God's eyes and next to God, who am I to claim that he's mentally retarded and I'm normal? God's knowledge is infinitely beyond both of us.

People who say "oh, they're sweet" or "oh, they're angels" are dehumanizing those with Down Syndrome and other disabilities too, just like people who say "they aren't human, kill them", though of course the second group is evil.

I hope you will tell your student if you ever have such a conversation again that they're just people, like her.

[gracesdad]

“Biology is not an opinion subject,” said Frame...”

Wrong.

[stevio]

Those SOBs told me and my wife that our last child had some sort of cysts on his vertebrae in the ultrasound, and that he could be profoundly retarded. The doctor even went so far as to “counsel” us into aborting the baby. He’s 1 1/2 now and he’s more than fine, a wild man but fine.

[mware]

Jen, I am sorry that her comment offended you. She was involved in the Buddy Ball program and would not intentionally hurt anyone.Thank you for your perspective on the issue.

[Aquinasfan]

Let's follow the "logic."

Though he believes aborting a fetus with Down syndrome is the moral thing to do

He can only hold this position if he believes it to be true that a child born with Down's Syndrome would be better off dead. It then necessarily follows that all living Down's Syndrome children should be killed.

This guy should be fired immediately, if not sooner. But live in an indifferent society where the advocacy of eugenics is accepted under the false notion of tolerance.

[Old Student]

“I wanted to post a snappy reply, but I forgot what I was going to say! (severe ADD sufferer myself, d**n glad my mom didn’t abort me, too!)”

Funny thing, when I was much younger, I thought mine should have, with me... then I had kids of my own, and understood her much better.

[Scotswife]

Not to be heartless (and then the inevitable... “but”)

And then proceed onto the heartless part.

[cantfindagoodscreenname]

I was a civil engineering major. We stuck to cold hard facts.M.i

I was an engineering major, too, but I did have to take humanities classes. I ran into garbage like this in the humanities department. But, I never ran into this stuff in an engineering class--never! That's one of the reasons I like/d engineering.