Down Syndrome and the Pressure to Abort

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How interesting while I was preparing a comment for Health Canada on preimplantation screening of embryos this interview is published.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, MARCH 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Many prospective parents are waiting for years to adopt children with Down syndrome, according to a recent article in the Associated Press.

So why is there an extended wait for kids with special needs, who are usually more difficult to place with families? The reason might be: the growing acceptance of aborting babies with Down syndrome.

Elizabeth Schiltz, law professor at the University of St. Thomas and contributor to “The Cost of ‘Choice’: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion” (Encounter Books), shared with ZENIT how aborting children with Down syndrome has not only become justified, but is almost considered a duty.
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zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=85718
 
You know that sadest thing is people thing that those who aren’t “normal” are some how not fit to be apart of society. These special needs childern are gifts from God and actaully teach our society alot about LOVE, Kindness, faith and how to respect and treat others. GOD BLESS them all!

Beckers
 
Downs kids are very loving and have so much to offer society.

Sadly, not a lot of them are being born anymore because they’re being killed in the womb.
 
I have a son with down’s syndrome.
I personally cannot see what all the fuss is about.I was worried when he was born-it must be serious, right, if our lovely Drs go to all the trouble of detecting them? But I honestly can’t see how he is much different to anyone else,allowing that he is a unique individual of course! I am sad that 98% of his peers were killed.
He is wonderful-what a gift! I think everyone should have one or two 🙂
 
apricot yogurt:
I have a son with down’s syndrome.
I personally cannot see what all the fuss is about.I was worried when he was born-it must be serious, right, if our lovely Drs go to all the trouble of detecting them? But I honestly can’t see how he is much different to anyone else,allowing that he is a unique individual of course! I am sad that 98% of his peers were killed.
He is wonderful-what a gift! I think everyone should have one or two 🙂
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My DS brother, now 35, has caused our family no end of trouble!

We had to stop being self-centred, enjoyable though it was, and think of the needs of others, particularly those who needed help and advocacy.

My parents had to stop thinking of material pursuits and, instead, joined organisations that provided support and advocacy for intellectually and physically disabled people. Sigh!

This do-gooding stuff was ultimately responsible for my many years of pro-life activity in crisis pregnancy, post abortion counselling and anti-euthanasia activism. Another sister learned sign language so she could work with deaf children.

I see the next generation infected with this (highly unnatural) desire to help others and accept people who are disabled.

Just think, without people like my brother, we could have gone on living for ourselves and concerned only with our own pleasures.

I was even :eek: once inspired to stand up and speak after a woman, who advocated aborting babies found to have disabilities, and said that in my opinion the greatest disability was a heart that was unable to accept and love people whether they had disabilities or not.
 
EileenT
I was even :eek: once inspired to stand up and speak after a woman, who advocated aborting babies found to have disabilities, and said that in my opinion the greatest disability was a heart that was unable to accept and love people whether they had disabilities or not.
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Great line in an even greater argument. What a wonderful family you have. Only in heaven, will we completely understand what Our Lord meant by the least among us will be the greatest. We will finally appreciate what an inverted reality we experience today with so many misplaced values. Your brother, and all the marginalized and discarded who don’t measure up to our utilitarian norms, will be so glorious in the afterlife we will be tempted to fall down and worship them as did St. John in the book of Revelation when the angel appeared to him. As for the contemporary, manmade mini-gods we worship today, for all their wealth, beauty and power, this elite will be so hideously ugly and corrupted, the sight of them will horrify us. The cure d’Ars once met a beautiful, much acclaimed actress of his day and promptly asked to be excused such was the stench of sin emanating from her repelling him.
 
This is a very scary by-product of the culture of death. I work with the developmentally disabled and over the years I’ve noticed less and less individuals with Down syndrome and it’s not because we’ve found a way to correct the abnormality of the 21st chromosome - it’s likely because many more of them are being aborted.
 
My brother has taught us more about the unconditional love God has for each of us than I ever learned in Church.
 
Same old story. Some people think they are God.

Basically, they think that they can decide, or that they can choose the criteria, about what makes someone human, about what gives or takes away someone’s right to live. As another poster put it, this makes them no better than serial killiers.

Only God can decide these things. According to God, children with Down syndrome are just as human and have just as much a right to live as people without Down syndrome.

The advocates of abortion need to learn that they are not God, before they meet Him face to face.
 
apricot yogurt:
I have a son with down’s syndrome.
I personally cannot see what all the fuss is about.I was worried when he was born-it must be serious, right, if our lovely Drs go to all the trouble of detecting them? But I honestly can’t see how he is much different to anyone else,allowing that he is a unique individual of course! I am sad that 98% of his peers were killed.
He is wonderful-what a gift! I think everyone should have one or two 🙂
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I totally agree with you. Downs kids are so very loving and they are indeed a beautiful and special gift from God. How horrible it is that they are killed before they are even born instead of treasured and appreciated for what they are - beautiful loving human beings - how very very sad.
 
I recently lost a baby (stillborn) at 7 months of pregnancy who had DS and some related issues (heart, etc.). I advocated for him and for the right to continue my pregnancy and made sure to read up on all aspects - medical, education, legal, latest research, etc. - of DS so that I could be prepared to give him the best head start possible. Sadly, it was not to be. But I am glad I had the opportunity to be an advocate, if even for a short amount of time.

I was astounded and ANGERED at how uninformed and callous some of the many “specialists” (high-risk pregnancy docs) were toward the notion of a fetus with an anomaly. One obnoxious doc tried to pressure me to terminate when there was suspicion of DS due to ultrasound findings. The picture he drew of children with DS was so negative and outright innacurate.

Yes, way in the past, developmentally disabled persons were just locked away, institutionalized. But now, with early intervention programs, medical advances, and greater empathy in the classroom from teachers and peers, Developmentally Disabled persons are making incredible strides and are vibrant and IMPORTANT memebers of our community, our society.

There was a very interesting study that came out in the late summer from Brian Sktoko, a Harvard Medical student who happens to have a sister with DS, about the way news of genetic/congeital anomaly is delivered to parents. You can read about it here:

news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/03.03/27-down.html
 
Brandy 101, Thank you for the link.

I’m sorry for the loss of your son. :blessyou:
 
Got this over on another thread but think it also belongs here as it is extermely true about the shift in attitudes of doctors… May we have the strength to have learned from history and fight for the rights of every person to be able to live to the life that GOD has planned for them…not the plan we have for them…

life.org.nz/euthanasiaab…ryglobal6. htm

The German experiment with euthanasia provides salutary lessons for the debate in the early 21st century.

During the Nazi’s T-4 programme, an estimated 250,000-350,000 Germans were put to death. It is not commonly known that the gas chamber technology used by the Nazi’s in the war years was developed when the large number of adult and child euthanasia cases required more efficient means than narcotics and starvation. Gas chambers were, in many cases, constructed on hospital grounds

In his “Medical Science under Dictatorship”, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, July, 1949, Dr Alexander observed:

“Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them, that they started from small beginnings. The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitudes of physicians.

“It started with the acceptance of the attitude, basic to the euthanasia movement, that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick.

“Gradually the sphere of those to be included in this category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted, and finally all non-Germans.”
 
Schiltz: Because, unfortunately, it has become socially acceptable to abort any baby who disappoints the expectations of the baby’s parents for any reason, as the increasingly common practice of sex-selection abortion indicates.
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This is one of the best descriptions of abortions I have heard in years. You cna almost claim it to be a definition.

If the baby does not meet expectations - kill it. and that includes being conceived at the right time.

May God have mercy on the souls of all who take part in this atrocity.
 
I, too, have been disturbed by the promotion of abortion of children with disabilities. A couple who are good friends of mine had a beautiful daugther last fall, born with DS. The prenatal testing came in about 2 or 3 weeks before the cutoff for legal abortions in our state, so the neonatologist (sorry about the spelling) was quick to inform them that the choice had to be made quickly or they would have to travel out of state (but of course, he could arrange that). This doctor apparently didn’t really get it when they told him no, because he brought it up 2 or 3 more times. Anyway, their daughter is a special blessing in their lives. She is very healthy for a DS baby, and is the light of her parent’s lives, as well as of her 5 older brother’s lives. She is also the anwser to a local nun’s prayers . . . at Christmas time, the family was visiting a home for retired nuns, where they were taken to speak with an elderly nun who prays daily for the unborn, especially those who are disabled. My friend tells me this nun was in tears upon hearing their story and seeing their baby girl. God blesses us when we follow Him.
 
The ultrasound said that my granddaugter had DS, but she was born normal. In fact she’s very intelligent, insightful, and verbal, but this brings up a disturbing point. The doctor wanted my daughter-in-law to abort the baby, but she and my son said that they were ready to accept their baby because that’s what God would have wanted them to do. But in this culture of death, it seems as though most doctors are telling pregnant moms to abort their babies, which is why, if you’ve noticed, we’re seeing fewer and fewer retarded children. The culture of death is gaining such a stranglehold that having a retarded child nowadays would be a revolutionary, radical act and a victory for the culture of life.
P.S. I shy away from the euphemism “developmentally disabled” because they’re no shame in being retarded. The shame comes in one’s not recognizing common dignity and destiny of all God’s children.
 
Just a friendly FYI - “devlopmentally disabled” is a useful term in that it encomapsses a number of situations, not just mental retardation. For example, a friend of mine has a daughter with problematic fine motor skills, thus she’s “developmentally disabled” even though her IQ is totally within normal range.

But anyway, it truly is scary how risk-adverse and oriented toward immediate gratification and “perfection” some doctors (and parents-to-be) are.
 
Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I am the proud mother of a Down Syndrome little girl and I must say I love it. She is the best thing that happened to my family and I want to take her on next year’s walk for like along with all of the children at Our Lady of Confidence school and show them off. They are so special and so much to offer us I almost feel sad for people who don’t know any. Anyhow loved reading some of your post.

God Bless
Kathleen
 
When I was pregnant for the first time (I was an older mom) my husband and I told the doctor that we did not want any testing done on our child because we were having that child, period. The doc brought up the subject of testing at nearly every visit, once even mentioned that she was disturbed to find “educated” parents who felt this way, and finally had me and my husband sign a paper that we had voluntarily rejected to have certain tests. Even after we signed the document she’d look at us meaningfully and say that it was still not too late…to do what, she would never specify.

It was infuriating. Our kid did not have DS, but if this is the kind of pressure docs put on parents who refuse to have the testing, I hate to imagine what sort of pressure they put on parents who do have the testing, discover their kid has DS, and still refuse to murder their child in cold blood.

We had a Catholic doctor for our second kid, I told him how I felt, and I still remember the relief on his face, bless him.

Parents should be warned by their priests and families about the medical establishment and its attitude toward less than perfect babies.
 
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brandy101:
One obnoxious doc tried to pressure me to terminate when there was suspicion of DS due to ultrasound findings.
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Yes - I had to go to genetic counseling and had to sign a waiver saying I would not sue anyone since I had been warned about the risk of DS after I refused information about amnio and abortion.
BTW - the ultrasound showed 3-4 “positive” sympomatic signs for DS. Jack was born completely healthy and “normal”. Pretty frightening that babies can be trashed after so little information.
 
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