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Down syndrome and the perfect child in a thread by marthamaria...

Thanks to TheSarce for the ping.

All across the land this fall, people have been gathering to promote awareness and acceptance of Down syndrome. Central to their message is the idea that people with the condition are valued family members who lead happy, fulfilling lives. At the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scientists have been meeting to develop research agendas to improve the lives of people with Down syndrome, the genetic condition that results when a person has three copies of the 21st chromosome instead of the usual pair. But in the places where medicine is practiced, a very different and less benevolent awareness of Down syndrome reigns. As a result of recent changes in technology and standards of care, women are undergoing prenatal diagnostics for Down syndrome in unprecedented numbers -- often multiple times during their pregnancies. When the condition is detected, they are having abortions at rates that are thought to approach 90 percent. Those of us who actually have relationships with people with Down syndrome, and who see them achieving and thriving in their communities, view this paradox as baffling at best, tragic at worst. We cherish our friends and family members and think their unexpected extra chromosome is not the most important thing about them. And we worry that the relentlessness of genetic testing is amplifying stigma and bias against the 350,000 flesh-and-blood Americans who have the condition, as well as people who have other conditions that are now or soon will be prenatally discoverable. In recent conversations with obstetricians and gynecologists, I've found that we family members aren't the only ones with these fears. Physicians say they're disturbed by mounting demands from prospective parents for nothing less than the "perfect" child,. ..

If the Test Says Down Syndrome

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For any who harbor lingering doubts about the effect of Terri's Legacy on those who hate us, who hate America, one need go no further than the Opposite of Edification (OpEdNews) article, and the link they include to a career America hater from Pakistan. Terri is a symbol of why they hate us so much.

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" As November 2007 draws to a close, it will be full three years since American forces razed the Iraqi city of Fallujah to ground. It was in November 2004 that George Bush’s forces played havoc with that city and its unfortunate inhabitants in the name of God. While the American media chose to remain blind to the utter horror of it all, busy as it was with keeping a close watch over the life and death of Terri Schindler Schiavo, Dr. Hafidh al-Dulaimi, the head of “the Commission for the Compensation of Fallujah citizens” reported the destruction that American troops inflicted on Fallujah.

REMEMBERING THE HORROR AND SHAME OF FALLUJAH

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Thank you, everyone for finding stories relating to disability and euthanasia, etc. Without our team here, there's no way we could catch all the news. Of late, I haven't contributed due to serious time constraints but, I appreciate all contributions because how these disabilities turn out will set us up for either a safe future or a perilous one.

(If we can give foreign aid to countries who hate us, we can protect our disabled and our seniors. Note: I didn't say socialize medicine, I said "protect" them.

Right now, they're oftentimes mistreated, stolen from and neglected.

HELPFUL HINT: Anyone going into a nursing home or rehab place (same places), GET A CAMERA FOR THE ROOM. It's usually the cleaning people who take stuff when nobody's around.