From the [UK] Sunday Times:

Two mothers share their perspectives on deciding whether or not to terminate a pregnancy after receiving a Down syndrome diagnosis:

Helena Campbell says she could not bear the thought of bringing a child into the world to suffer. She says she knew right away that terminating her pregnancy was the right thing to do.

The older children were devastated that we had lost the baby. But part of my thinking had been that I wasn’t going to be here forever, and somebody in the future would have to be responsible for this disabled child. I didn’t think it was fair to put that pressure on the other children.

… My son wasn’t supposed to be here; that’s what I believe.

Sal Hamlyn writes that she felt pushed to terminate after her son was diagnosed with Down syndrome, but she already felt he was part of her family.

“I can’t pretend the weeks leading up to his birth were easy. There were mixed emotions — but we always had hope. We had tremendous support from family and friends, and from the Down’s Syndrome Association.

… “I thought what happened to us was the end of the world — but it was the start of a whole new one. Life’s never dull with Isaac.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 10:23 am and is filed under Down syndrome, ethics, families, first-person, personal stories, 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.