Reply to s/o - Aborting because a child is "disabled"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP here and as a parent of a toddler with Down syndrome, I'm still reeling from the PP who terminated a child w/ T18 and said that she didn't consider the fetus to be human because it had too many chromosomes and thus, was not human.

My sweet, smart, loving child with Down syndrome has too many chromosomes, too.    The amount of outdated and outright wrong information about children and adults with Down syndrome in this threat is staggering.  It is expected that most children born today with Down syndrome will function much better as adults than most adults with DS currently do. This is partly due to improved medical interventions for the most common physical disabilities: i.e the vast majority of heart conditions associated with DS are perfectly correctable now with one surgery in infancy.  All of the most prominent scientists who are doing research for treatments for the cognitive effects of Down syndrome believe that a medical treatment (i.e medication) will be development in the near future that will greatly improve the cognitive abilities of people with DS. Eventually, there will be a complete treatment for the cognitive impairments associated with DS and normal cognition will be restored.   It is likely this will happen in my child's lifetime.  Perhaps she will be an adult, maybe even an older adult, but it is very likely to happen.  [b]Many, many adults with DS live independently or mostly independently as adults and work in satisfying and productive jobs, even with current functional levels. [/b] Many others live quite happily in supported group homes.  The future for children with DS has never looked so promising.   And the joy that just emanates from most children with DS...if you could bottle that... if only the rest of the world lived with such pure joy.

Not human?  Just look at this sweet child and tell me she's 'not human':    http://youtu.be/3ld_UEyxE8A[/quote]

Unfortunately this is just not true. It is quite rare for an adult with DS to live completely independently. I used to teach elementary special education and was really delighted to see how well my students with special needs (including students with DS) could be included and supported. Then I transferred to the high school level and it was a whole other world. While in elementary school it was easy to get typically developing kids to interact with my students with severe needs, in high school the only students who would willingly interact were students who wanted to put the experience on their college applications. Inclusion was really challenging. Parents were really worried about how to make sure their kids were supported when they were adults and the parents were retired or deceased.  Based on my experience in secondary schools I had an amnio with one pregnancy and CVS with the other. I didn't have to make the tough decision of what to do if I were pregnant with a child with a severe disability, but I am pretty sure I wouldn't have continued the pregnancy. I would never post this on the SN boards, but because this is the OFF topic boards I think parents who are faced with the decision should speak to parents with older children with disabilities not just parents with toddlers or elementary school students. [/quote]

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