Posted on Wednesday 30 November 2005
As a rebuttal to the article a few weeks ago by a mother of a Down syndrome child speaking out against aborting babies based on genetic testing, here is an article written by a woman justifying her decision to get an abortion after testing positive for having a baby with Down syndrome. Her basic argument boils down to this one paragraph:
While I have no doubt there can be joys and victories in raising a mentally handicapped child, for me and for Mike, it’s a painful journey that we believe is better not taken. To know now that our son would be retarded, perhaps profoundly, gives us the choice of not continuing the pregnancy. We don’t want a life like that for our child, and the added worry that we wouldn’t be around long enough to care for him throughout his life.
My question is this: how many parents are prepared to have a Down syndrome child? My guess is not many. I dare say that most all parents realize that, on average, having a mentally (or physically) handicapped child is going to be a more difficult journey for them than having a healthy child. This is just a reality with the increased medical care, effort, and attention that, in general, the child will require. Do parents that make the decision to have such children have some special ability that this lady does not? My guess is no…they just decide that they’re going to care for their baby regardless of any handicaps. I wonder, and this is something only the would-be parents that make such choices can answer with some deep soul searching, whether the decision to have the abortion is based more on concern for the well-being of the Down syndrome childe or the more selfish rationale that it will cause their lives to take a different course than they envisioned.
My final thought is this. History has proved to be rather unkind to those who have selectively chosen not to let a specific group of people live based on a genetic characteristic. Those who would justify an abortion because a child will be born with Down syndrome have a high burden of proof to demonstrate why their choice is moral when so many decisions with a similar basis have been viewed as immoral in retrospect.
Tags: abortion, down-syndrome, genetic-testing, News and Politics
These arguments all make sense if the life has not yet begun.
On the other hand, they also seem like great arguments for not getting pregnant in the first place.
I would actually include the question of whether parents that wouldn’t be good parents for down syndrome kids would still be good parents for regular kids. The difference doesn’t seem to be what the kid needs, but more how long they’ll need that help (though what do I know?).
This is true…in this circumstance, one would have to question whether they really wanted a child to care for and nuture or just the lifestyle that is envisioned by having “normal” kids. If it’s the latter, they probably don’t need to be parents in the first place.
Candace and I have had a unique look into this situation as of late. We had to make the decision to do the testing for Downs and Spinalbifida (sp?) at the end of the first trimester. My question to the doc was, “what can we do if it comes back positive?” As it turned out our only recourse was abortion. There was no way to help the baby at that point.
It was seriously a tough thing to wrestle with. Do you want to know or not. I’m against abortion, but would I change my tune when faced with that difficult scenario? Candace and I remained resolute that abortion would not be an option under any circumstance and did not choose the testing, but there was a selfish voice inside my head that wanted to find an easy way out if such a disability was present. That voice thought only of me and the perceived difficulty brought into my life, and nothing of this child. Giving into it is the easy choice, but also the wrong one. I think you’re absolutely right in your assesment of this woman’s selfishness, but I think we all find that disgusting trait in some part of ourselves. It all comes down to whether or not we give into it.