Posted on 08/13/2008 4:03:04 PM PDT by wagglebee
TRONDHEIM, Norway, August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recently published Norwegian study of prenatal detection of trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) reveals that 84% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the country are aborted. The study also concludes with the observation that "based solely on maternal age and second-trimester ultrasound imaging, the prenatal detection rate of trisomy 21 cases was poor and remained unchanged throughout the 18-year study period."
The study was conducted by the Norwegian National Center for Fetal Medicine and published in the August 2008 issue of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The research was based on data obtained from 1987 to 2004, where all cases of Down syndrome were registered, detected either by genetic testing following amniocentesis, or postnatally after delivery.
The study's finding that the prenatal detection results were not accurate ("the prenatal detection rate was only 43%") means that, in practice, the possibility of false positive results could lead to the abortion of healthy children.
The Norwegian study confirms other research which has also found that prenatal screening is not as accurate as previously thought.
One report, published in the journal Nature in 2006, found that genetic continuance from parents to child is more complex than earlier research had indicated and suggests that prenatal screening may have incorrectly diagnosed genetic variations as defects, which may have led to selective abortion based on an inaccurate conclusion of genetic abnormality.
Another study, authored by Brian Skotko of the National Down's Syndrome Congress and published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2005, showed a predisposition to abortion among medical professionals after amniocentesis indicated a possibility of Down's Syndrome.
"It has become routine to offer pregnant women, especially those over 35 prenatal screening for Down's Syndrome. Such testing, however, does not give a certain diagnosis of Down's Syndrome, but only a percentage possibility. Nevertheless, the abortion rate with even an uncertain pre-natal Down's Syndrome diagnosis is extremely high, with some studies showing as many as 90% of children aborted." Mr. Skotko wrote.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com articles:
Prenatal Screening not so Accurate as Once Thought - "Normal" Children Killed as "Defective"?
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06112403.html
Earlier Screening for Down's Syndrome May Fuel Eugenic Program Against Disabled
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05111002.html
95% of Spanish Down's Syndrome Children Aborted After Prenatal Testing
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08073111.html
Abortion is Primary Direction for Obstetricians After Down's Diagnosis Study Finds
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05040502.html
The culture of death ONLY cares about killing babies, it doesn't bother them at all to trick women into it.
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Sad. But uplifted by this person:
Dr. Lise Poirier-Groulx, the subject of another of the three articles, is a medical doctor and a mother of a Down Syndrome child. She relates how when it was discovered that she was pregnant with a Down child, the doctors with whom she dealt strongly pressured her to abort the child. “It was assumed that you were going to terminate,” recounts Poirier-Groulx. “Everywhere I went it was assumed.”
“I got mostly cold stares and silences - Is this doctor for real? What is she doing? - that kind of attitude. We had to constantly state it: No, we don’t want to terminate. There was none of this talk - the pros and cons, positives and negatives of having a handicapped child. We never got that. It was just negative, when do you want to do it (the termination) type of thing.”
Read more:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030303.html
This might sound stupid, but knowing how gorgeous most Nordic people are (I’m married to a Swede), you’d think a Down Syndrome baby of that ancestry would be the cutest thing on earth. *SHRUG*
I’ve worked with the developmentally disabled since I was a teenager. There is NO reason to abort these babies. Yes, they are a LOT of hard work, but so is ANY baby! God never gives you more than you can handle.
For a good read on the subject, try “Expecting Adam” by Martha Beck. Yes, Oprah LOVES her to pieces, but for ONCE even a LEFTY makes the RIGHT choice in LIFE.
I know several families with Down’s children and while they all have experienced some difficulties, they also have a bond with these children that is far deeper than a normal parent-child bond. Additionally, these are among the most loving children you will ever meet.
I read somewhere that fifty so years ago they had these special schools for so called "feeble minded" children. They were terrible places and they abused the students and yet many of them later tested normal IQ and that the tests they gave were not very accurate. Many of the children were normal.
Yep, my friend’s mom was tested and she told that her son would have Down syndrome when he was born. They urged her to get an abortion. She refused and has a heathy (syndrome free) little boy now.
If only other people knew how unreliable these test are.
Pro-abortion people won’t discuss reliability of down syndrome pre-birth testing. To do so would give weight to the notion that an unborn baby is worth more than a blob of tissue.
What sort of heartless sub human would abort a baby for the “defect” of down syndrome.
What “defect” is next?
Wrong sex?
Oh, I forgot, female babies are already being murdered in some parts of the world.
A doctor — and I us the word ‘doctor’ loosly — making such a sugestion is disgusting.
So much for the Hippocratic oath.
STE=Q
Well, given the history of eugenics, it will eventually be EVERY child that is not a blond-haired, blue-eyed "Aryan" in "perfect" physical condition.
TYPO: us = use; sub human = sub-human; and use a question mark in the first sentence.
Oh, how sad. Down Syndrome babies are so precious!
At least my grandson is!!
Awesome article.
The old test was sketchy at best. I know several people who came back with false positives for not only Down’s but also other disorders.
That said, they have a pretty new test that at this point they claim is over 90% accurate. Not just blood work, but a combination of things. My friend had it with her last pregnancy (it wasn’t availabl for her two year old to give you an idea of how new this is). Once again the traditional test threw a positive, but the new combo was negative.
I can’t stand to think of all the babies killed because of a faulty test. I hate that doctors encourage abortion when the tests came back positive. I’m actually changing OBs because she told me at my first appointment that this early screen could give me “options” whereas in later screens “your options are limited”. I haven’t even had the test yet and she was preparing me to abort if it was positive!!
I hope this new testing saves lives.
Our boy is fine and getting ready to celebrate his 2nd birthday. It still angers me to think what they put us through for those days after. And even more so the fact that they tried to have us abort our baby.
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