More information on Down syndrome provided to parents Delaney Bement EN101A March 10, 2016, Art Institute of Virginia Beach More information on Down syndrome provided to parents When the doctor brings you into a room and asks you to sit down, there's no question he's about to inform you of something that you don't want to hear. And when that information is, in fact, that your unborn baby has been diagnosed with Down syndrome, a million questions run through your head. At this point in time, the doctor should leave you be to do some thinking, but in the near future, he should have plenty of information on what it's like to raise a child with Down syndrome. Instead, what is happening quite frequently today is the doctor is persuading you not to give birth to that defected child.
New technology allows for prenatal testing to determine whether a fetus will be born with Down syndrome or other disabilities or birth defects. This is leading to many consultations between doctors and parents discussing whether they will give birth to a child with Down syndrome or get an abortion. There have been many instances where the doctor only points out the negative aspects of raising a child with Down syndrome, and they may even persuade the parents to abort the child.
According to an interviewee in an article by Mark Lawrence Schard, "Though precise numbers are unavailable, at least two-thirds and as many as 90 percent of fetuses found to have Down syndrome in utero are aborted." Some of these abortions were decided without the parents even considering what it would be like to raise a child with Down syndrome, partially because they're being swayed by an outside, professional opinion. Although raising a child with a disability is most definitely not a job fit for everyone, I believe that everyone should be well informed and thoroughly understand what it is like to raise a child with Down syndrome before they choose to get an abortion or to carry on with the pregnancy and birth. Accompanied by this information, doctors should have no biased opinion in the situation; the decision would best be made solely by the parents.
When an unborn baby is discovered to be disabled, people look at abortion much differently than they would in most other situations, as if it has become nothing but a problem child, something that no one wants to deal with or an embarrassment. Why is human nature that way? Why don't we look at this baby as the small hu...
