When we were expecting our kids we voluntarily had what ever neo-natal screening was available. I know they checked for Spina Bifida. They probably screened for Downs, too.
Our intent was to be fully prepared for whatever special needs the Lord was going to be blessing us with.
Unfortunately, too many people don't think like we did... and those who test positive were, and still are, aborted.
As it stands today, somewhere over 90% of American babies with Downs are aborted.
Thank you Gerber, for making Downs babies our babies, again.
More at the link.
5 comments:
Extra layer of horror-- turns out that the genetic "screenings" aren't that accurate.
A lady doctor got the screening; 75% of the cells sampled were positive for... one of the "kid will not live past birth" diseases. She's a researcher, but apparently a mom and takes that Dr Oath pretty seriously, so she didn't kill her kid.
Kid is fine.
She's now on the cutting edge of research because it turns out that, during development, there's some kind of a system that will edit cells with problems in their DNA-- which might explain part of why some kids with Down's are hit much harder than others.
Once we figure this out, we might be able to come up with a therapy for it, something we can DO like surgery for Spina Bifida-- imagine Downs not meaning years of heart surgery....
My standard request for screenings with pregnancies:
only stuff that can be fixed.
It's amazing how much you can "read" behind what kind of a mask folks put on at that point. (So far, one nurse that was horrified we wouldn't even "check," and a whole lot of folks that got almost teary-eyed.)
I've seen a few cases like what Foxfier is talking about. Also, I grew up with a Down's kid--wrestled with him in junior high, actually. Great kid, and you should have seen him after he unexpectedly pinned his opponent. He was dancing, we were dancing, it was beautiful.
And as the daddy of six kids, three of which were born after Mrs. Bubba turned 35, I've had a lot of the same misgivings about the prenatal testing, and have actually asked "OK, if you find this, what exactly can be done besides abortion?" Bit of hemming and hawing, and the best answer I heard was "we can have you have your baby at Children's so that the best NICU in the state is at hand."
That answer I liked.
You can fix spina bifida. You can also fix cleft lip and palate. People abort for that, too. It's awful.
Also for club foot.
i had no idea people were aborting for clubbed feet and cleft palate/lip. this is sad.
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