From WCAI, public radio on Cape Cod:

Ari Shapiro presents a thought-provoking and nuanced conversation about the challenges posed by prenatal screening, selective termination and informed consent. Crissy Condon and Bill Roslansky have three children (at left). Matthew was born with Down syndrome three years ago after the couple had been reassured by doctors that their prenatal screen was “negative.”

Bill and Crissy hadn’t really understood that screening only delivers probabilities, while diagnostic testing (amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling) is needed to produce a definitive result.

Nonetheless, they say they love Matthew and worry about the societal implications of broad-based prenatal screening and selective termination.

Dr. Brian Skotko, of Children’s Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center, says expectant parents need to receive comprehensive, balanced information about the lives of people with disabilities. They also need to decide for themselves when life begins and what forms of life are valuable, he says.

Ari Shapiro: The choices offered by these prenatal screens and diagnostics are here to stay. In fact, prenatal screening for more and more physical and mental conditions is inevitable. It will be up to each couple to first, determine whether they want this information and second, if so, whether they’ll use it to either prepare for the pregnancy or terminate it. These tests challenge couples to look inwards, and think about what kind of life is worth living and the types of families they hope to create.

Audio here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, abortion, prenatal diagnosis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post