Marta E. Maloney writes a letter to the Louisville Courier-Journal in response to a recent column by Mark W. Leach warning that medical practice and uninformed social attitudes could effectively halt the birth of babies with Down syndrome. Maloney’s brother has the condition. An excerpt:

People with Down syndrome have a lot to teach us. We have learned empathy, abiding joy, and unconditional love. We have also had some sorrow – as a kid it hurt to see the kids point and laugh – but it gave me a fierce determination to teach others the wonderful lessons I have learned.

My family is lucky to have Matt. We would not be who we were if not for him. How sad is it that fear and medical science could one day take all of these important lessons away.

There is a reason people are different and who are we to say who is important and who isn’t? Who are we to say who is worthy and who is not? Let’s just be thankful and acknowledge the gifts all people have to offer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under abortion, Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, public attitudes. 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.