Expedient??? If a doctor advises a patient to abort on the basis of a suspicion of Downs that has not been genetically confirmed, and the fetus then turns out not to have had Downs (which is VERY easily confirmed post-abortion), that doctor will be sued, the doctor’s insurer won’t even bother going to court and will settle out of court for a huge sum, and the doctor will never be able to get malpractice insurance again, and will thus never be able to practice medicine in the US again.
Even if an obstetrician’s main goal in life is to terminate as many Downs fetuses as possible (an implausible assumption, but to hear some of the rantings on FR, obviously some people really believe there are doctors like this), he’ll have a lot more opportunity to do this with a medical license, doing post-amniocentesis abortions, than after he’s lost his license (at least for a time) and lost his insurability and thus ability to practice medicine legally (and that would be permanent).
Unless, of course, the patient has the same feelings that you believe happened in this case, which is that they really didn't want the child in the first place. Doc certainly wouldn't be much at risk if he's given someone justification for ridding themselves of an unwanted child, would he?
Unfortunately, there ARE doctors like this. I personally had no less than THREE of them pressuring me to have an abortion because they were convinced my baby was dead or dying (with no ultrasound or any other diagnostic method taken) and I was "miscarrying".
I took it up to the head obstetrician and he sent me home. The bleeding stopped, and four days later we heard the heartbeat on the doppler.
One of the doctors approached my husband a few months later to ask how I was. Husband said I was ready to deliver. "That wasn't supposed to happen!" was the doctor's incredulous response.
If he had his way, my precious daughter (normal in every way) would not be here, and my granddaughter wouldn't be either.
Do you really believe that anyone who aborts a child under any circumstance would simply not get rid of the evidence? I can’t imagine that there would be follow up on a dead baby to make sure they were correct in their diagnosis.