Column: My daughters aren’t anti-abortion poster children
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Renate Lindeman says it’s time to take the issue of prenatal screening out of the abortion debate once and for all. Lindeman’s two daughters have Down syndrome. She says pregnant women are not receiving unbiased, balanced and complete information about Down syndrome, and so are not making fully informed choices.
Lindeman would like to see complete information made available before couples are even asked whether they wish to screen. An excerpt:
Singling out a condition by offering routine screening and enabling selective abortion sends a strong value judgment about potential quality of life. Trying to predict the future based solely on their genes opens the door to discrimination, anxiety, fears and underestimating social and environmental factors in maintaining health. Progress that was made over many generations, in terms of inclusion and equal rights, could be lost in less than one.
… At the end of the day, when I look at my daughters, April and Hazel, both living with Down syndrome, I don’t see the genetically flawed children that prenatal screening is trying to eliminate. I see kind-hearted, happy children who are giants in loving and living, who enrich our human genetic diversity and who teach me and everyone they meet what it is to truly feel.
See related article.
Lindeman is a spokesperson for “Down Syndrome Belongs” of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.




