Prospective parents need updated information about Down syndrome along with prenatal tests, author says

Journalist Angela Blakston, writing in The Age [Melbourne, Australia], is troubled about the recent recommendation by experts in Australia that all pregnant women should be offered screening for Down syndrome. Blakston fears that universal screening would send a clear message that the lives of people like her son Gabriel are not worth living.

One of my main concerns is the “informed choice” that will become more readily available to women will exist perfectly in theory but will be little more than a subtly biased justification for termination.

… Will uniform national scanning serve to further marginalize people with Down syndrome and their families, particularly those “who knew”? We decried the barbarity of institutionalizing people with disabilities and fully dispensed with that model only two decades ago. Is uniform scanning that different in its intention: dispense with the “problem”, a so-called easy fix?

… My hope would be that any policy developed for uniform scanning would aim to keep abreast of advances in Down syndrome and clearly communicate these changes to expectant parents.

(Photo of Gabriel as a newborn from The Age)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, abortion, first-person, 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.