Down Syndrome

 

A Reminder of What is Good and Holy

By Dave Andrusko
In 2012 the United Nations passed a resolution formally recognizing March 21, as World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD). A year later, surfing the net, I found the stories split between celebrating the idea that we are finally beginning to recognize the abilities of people with Down syndrome and warning (as Mark Leach wrote) that “Unless regulations and laws are changed, there will be fewer people with Down syndrome to celebrate on future World Down Syndrome Days, making this year the high water mark of lives with Down syndrome.”

Nearly two years later, the near-Doomsday prediction stories, unfortunately, seem more in tune with the times.

I thought of that as I re-read a piece by Kelly Rosati, which appeared at Christianity Today. She began by observing, “Despite huge advances in improving quality of life—life expectancy has doubled from 25 to 55 years in the last 30 years due to medication, therapies, and specialized surgery—the population of those with Down syndrome is barreling toward extinction.“ Just because the explanations are not new does not mean they are any the less true or surely any the less scary.
Rosati points to the simpler blood tests that can identify the ‘imperfect’ baby earlier in pregnancy. And while there is some differences, the consensus is that as many as 90% of women who are told their baby has Down syndrome will abort. Put those two together and there will be fewer and fewer children—and therefore adults—with Down syndrome.

We’ve written about “wrongful life” decisions won by parents of a child with Down syndrome. Most of the time they said they loved their child—no reason to doubt that—but had they known in advance, they would have aborted him. Hence the ugly description, “wrongful life.”
In one particular instance, the New York Post ran a story in response. In it, Paul Root Wolpe, Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University, said, “What you end up having is a world without people with Down syndrome. And the question becomes is that a good thing or a bad thing?” He adds, unhelpfully, “It’s a real conundrum.”
You can read KellyRosati and Mark Leach. And if you take the few minutes to read each, you will be glad you did.

Let me close this brief story with these remarks from Rosati which speak volumes:

“With advances in genetic testing and the foretelling of the end of Down syndrome, I have to wonder who’s next. If a test can reveal future childhood diabetes or cancer, blindness, deafness, a propensity toward violence, and even ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) later in life, will couples choose abortion? What possible disability or disorder will be eradicated next? What will we as a society become as we strive to avoid suffering and hardship, and raise cultural expectations of normal? And if we see the preborn as just a mass of cells dividing and re-dividing, instead of as a real child with a soul, where will this path lead us?

“Even as I fear the answers to these questions and fight for the right of these individuals to a life of dignity, I acknowledge a great God who has the power to change hearts and minds. And when an individual with Down syndrome crosses my path, I will never see it as anything less than a reminder of what is good and holy.”

Source: NRLC News