Albert Harris, a biology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, stirred controversy last week when he said in class that fetuses with Down syndrome should be aborted. See an editorial and letters about the matter here.

Following is an excerpt of an email by his wife, Elizabeth Harris, which was slightly revised for publication by Mrs. Harris and is printed here with her permission.

This has been one horrible week. The hate mail is coming in faster than we can read it, let alone respond, and we’re both working on it.

In point of fact, the position my husband took in class was more extreme than his true beliefs, and he did it to encourage discussion among the students (who are mostly college seniors, and mostly pre-meds).

The course is on embryology, and part of this lecture dealt with the things that can go wrong in embryonic development. Down syndrome was emphasized because of its frequency, and because of the increase in risk in older mothers, which has a clear biological basis. Some of these students are likely to be in a position in their later careers where they need to advise patients on prenatal screening, and many will face this question as parents themselves. It is entirely appropriate to have a discussion of the ethical issues in the context of the biological facts.

In past years discussion on this topic has sometimes degenerated into a pro-life student calling anyone who opposed her a murderer, and my husband thought by taking the most extreme position himself he could deflect these comments to himself, leaving the students more willing to speak up about more moderate positions.

In fact, if we had been faced with a Down syndrome diagnosis ourselves, even back in the 1970s when our children were born, it would have been a very difficult decision to make, and we might very well have decided not to terminate the pregnancy.

This is a man who runs into traffic to save a turtle crossing the road, and carries spiders outside the house to turn them loose. He is enormously protective of children. If we had been faced with this decision, a decision to abort would have been based on the anticipated likely suffering of the child, not on some perception that she would be less than human (as the accusations usually read).

Even after reading all the e-mails from people who are bringing up wonderful children with Down syndrome, I would still have concerns about whether it is unjust knowingly to have a child who may have to undergo multiple surgeries, have a high risk of developing leukemia, and so on. But if we had such a child, we would of course do everything in our power to make his or her life a happy one.

We are greatly encouraged at the progress that has been made in recent years in surgical and developmental intervention, and in the growth of support networks and other resources. We appreciate the devotion of the families who are caring for children with Down syndrome, and their efforts to increase public awareness of this condition.

— Elizabeth Harris

February 21, 2008