Thursday, February 26, 2009

New article

I posted a link to a recent article from the Boston Globe. It's about prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. It profiles two couples--one who decided to carry to term after getting a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, and one who decided to terminate.
I wasn't surprised to see that the article focused mainly on the couple who decided to carry to term. Very little coverage was given to the couple who terminated and their agonizing decision-making process. Even many of the reader comments that were posted after the article completely glossed over the fact that those who choose to terminate DON'T do so based on screening tests alone. There were a few anecdotal stories of "My best friend's sister's doctor told her that her baby would have Down's and it doesn't!" Blah, blah, blah. Then obviously she didn't have a CVS or amnio, because those are like 99% accurate.
It's assumed that those who terminate just don't want "that" baby and they must have made the decision to terminate out of fear. The truth of the matter is that those who choose termination do so not out of fear but out of love and concern for each and every member of their family. It's NOT a selfish decision. At all.