Writing in the [UK] Daily Mail, mother Deborah Dooley responds to a neighbor’s comment that she should have terminated her pregnancy rather than give birth to her daughter, who has cystic fibrosis. Daughter Flo is now 20 and is studying dance. An excerpt:

Flo is bright, beautiful, funny, affectionate, clever and hard-working. Yet she is also deemed to be ‘disabled’. To me, this changes nothing….

Very occasionally, I consider the fact that only a last-minute decision stopped me having a test that could have denied my lovely daughter life.

For a brief, sad and always shocking moment I wonder what life without Flo might have been like. Then I think about the huge joy she’s brought us, and how lucky we are to have her – and I feel doubly blessed.

Dooley’s daughter adds:

I do understand the dilemma that parents can go through — I just wonder if people who are so-called ‘ able-bodied’ really take the time to think about those who aren’t: what it means to be disabled, the variations on what we call disabled, and what these people can bring to society.

… I don’t think that being labelled as not quite right, or disabled — or whatever — before you’re even born should mean that you have no right to life. In my opinion, the world needs so-called, less-than-perfect people, those people can live full and happy lives — I believe I’m living proof of that.

(Photo from the [UK] Daily Mail)

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 4:11 am and is filed under abortion, cystic fibrosis, genetics, 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.