Abnormal Pregnancies

     I found this article in Time Magazine which relates to the whole theme of our class: “Early Decision: Will new advances in prenatal testing shrink the ranks of babies with Down syndrome?” The article was about a new method—a simple blood test—that could efficiently, cheaply and safely detect fetus’s with terminal diagnoses. What I found interesting is that the new blood test could be viewed in two ways: First, to weed out children with Down syndrome or any other less perfect than among us—the search and destroy way of looking at it. Or one could look at it as an option to help families to emotionally and medically prepare for a child with abnormalities. Sadly as the article suggested, “termination after a positive test often seems the default expectation.” In other words, with the new blood test, it is likely our society will back-track and once again practice Eugenics. The problem, “If more terminations lead to a reduction of services for babies with Down syndrome . . . [things would return] to the way they were 40 years ago, when children with Down syndrome were rarely mainstreamed into schools and were often institutionalized.” One mother in the article was undecided about terminating her pregnancy. She then went to a support group whose membership included parents that had children with Down syndrome; she noticed the kids were more playful, friendly and active than she anticipated. She then chose to follow through with her pregnancy. Awareness seems to be the enemy and blurs the lines of “normal vs. deviant”. The article did an amazing job with its conclusion: “Any parent raising a child with Down syndrome will have the same range of experiences [they would with a normal child]—the good and the bad, the joyous and the challenging—albeit in different ways. It’s that very possibility of ordinariness, though, that may best capture the new world of the Down syndrome child.”
     The conclusion seems to ask, “Is raising a child with Down syndrome any different than raising a normal child?” at the same time suggest, “Raising a child with Down Syndrome will give you the same experiences as raising a normal child.” So the ultimate question then, is a child with Down syndrome all that abnormal?

Rochman, Bonnie. “Early Decision: Will new advances in prenatal testing shrink the ranks of babies with Down syndrome?” Time Magazine 27^th Feb. 2012: 36-40. Print

Domalski, Josh