Down Syndrome and the Pressure to Abort

Zenit News Agenc ^ | March 9, 2006 | Elizabeth Schlitz

[ziggygrey]

I don't know about Down Syndrome babies, but there are plenty of otherwise mentally and physically disabled children up for adoption...

http://www.adoptuskids.org/states/aici/aici_search_top.html

..for a start. If someone has their heart set on adopting a mentally disabled child, they shouldn't have a problem finding them.

[Cap'n Crunch]

A guy I work with came to me upset. He and his wife were expecting their 4 child. The Doctor told them the child had Down's Syndrome. They were thinking about an abortion.

He asked my opinion and I told him that I thought he should choose life. He and his wife talked to a few other people and agreed, that no matter what they were going to have the child.

The little girl was born and did not have Down's Syndrome.

Now they are expecting their 5th child. Caught up to me.

[Mr. Lucky]

What, in your opinion, are the politically correct reasons to abort children?

[RobbyS]

At least Hitler advocated that the members of the "master race" reproduce themselves. The new master race doesn't care what happens after they leave.

[Graybeard58]

See #17

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Should people who know they are having a baby with Downs Syndrome be allowed to abort?"

"This type of abortion should be definently outlawed."

---

All types of abortion, except to save the life of the mother, should be outlawed.

It is really sickening how doctors try to push abortion on parents of babies who were diagnosed with Down Syndrome while in the womb. The article really nails the biggest problem, which is that the medical profession truly believes that parents have a "duty" to abort "imperfect" babies.

My wife and I are expecting a baby, and we chose not to undergo screening tests for disabilities, since we knew that we would have and raise our baby regardless of how God made her. But even for people who for some twisted reason do not believe that aborting a disabled child is murder and thus immoral, they should be aware that the Down Syndrome pre-screening yields a huge number of false positives, and while the amniocentesis that is performed as a follow-up has a much smaller percentage of false positives, the amniocentesis itself is a dangerous procedure that results in the baby's death in a not-insignificant percentage of times. And tests for other disabilities may be even more unreliable. I know someone who was diagnosed in the womb as being paraplegic and severely retarded, but her parents refused their doctor's advice that they abort her; she turned out to be paraplegic but mentally gifted, and ended up graduating from an elite university and law school. So the "imperfect" child that is aborted could turn out to be a genius. And even if he or she isn't, he or she is still entitled to the same human dignity as the rest of us.

[RobbyS]

Faith is courage. Our elites constantly take counsel of their fears.

[wyattearp]

my grand daughter was diagnosed as carrying a Down's baby, the perfectly normal result of her pregnancy can be seen by clicking my screen name.

So was a friend of mine, with the same result. She was strongly counseled to have the child aborted, but just could not bring herself to do it. Not under any circumstances. Turns out that the test for Down's can give a false positive if they have the age of the baby off by a significant amount.

I wonder how many perfectly normal babies have been killed, and how many parents have been denied a child, because of this?

[Huck]

Wow. That's the best argument against so far.

[Huck]

Wow. Second such story on the thread. I'm sold.

[PalestrinaGal0317]

Children with Down's Syndrome are by the vast majority the sweetest children you will ever meet. I have never met a Down's Syndrome child who wasn't one of gentlest, sweetest, most beautiful souls on the planet.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"If they ever do find a "gay gene", people may terminate pregnancies based on that. I wonder what libs will do since they support abortions and gay rights. Quite a dilemma."

---

Last year, a pro-life Republican state legislator in Maine introduced a bill to ban abortions based on presence of a "gay gene" if one is ever discovered, exactly so as to create a huge dilemma for liberals. See:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350151/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350479/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350980/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1351772/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355719/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1358452/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1358805/posts

[socialismisinsidious]

And Margaret Sanger would be proud.

Margaret Sanger quotes:

"Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock."

"Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems.

"The unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' [is] the greatest present menace to civilization… the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective."

"Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying… a dead weight of human waste… an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all."

[NYer]

some may even consider it a blessing.

Indeed! A Down Syndrome child is a blessing for they bring innocent joy into the home. What a sad world without these beautiful children.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"I wonder how many perfectly normal babies have been killed, and how many parents have been denied a child, because of this?"

---

Even when an "imperfect" baby is killed, his or her parents are denied a child.

[Graybeard58]

The Dr., to his credit, did not councel my grand daughter to get an abortion. I look at my perfectly normal great grand son and wonder how many beautiful babies like him have been killed because of some flawed test.

He's about 6 months old now and praise God he is alive.

[NYer]

Why would so many people be specially waiting to try get a child with Down's syndrome?

Perhaps they recognize the disdain society has placed on any human being that is not perfect and seek to share their love and home with those who are unwanted by societal standards. Just a hunch :-)

[Huck]

Well congrats to you. Enjoy the blessing.

[NYer]

I have a Catholic friend who avoided getting a amniocentesis, even though she was in the high risk group, just because of this dilemma.

God bless her! I would have done the same.