Abortion of children with Down Syndrome
In a society where people are aborting babies with a chance of having a disability it is difficult to find what is morally right. Down Syndrome is one of the most common genetic conditions. It causes children to learn their first language and gross motor skills slower and they will grow at a slower rate, but this can change from person to person with some growing and learning faster than others. Doctors and the majority of people suggest children with Down Syndrome will not have a good life and imply that is irresponsible to give birth to such a child. Aborting children with Down Syndrome is an action that cannot be justified by Christian morals.
Ethical Dilemma
Susan, a woman with a successful career, has wanted to have a child for many years and has tried many times. When she finally becomes pregnant her doctors find her child will likely have Down Syndrome and suggest she abort her baby. She is uncomfortable with abortion and goes to Richard, a professor of evolutionary biology, and asks what to do. He tells her that it would be justified to abort the baby because the child would suffer for it’s whole life. He said she must decide this for herself however. He talked
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If Susan wanted to act like a Christian she should be happy that she is finally having the child she always wanted and not look at said child as a burden. Another reason why she should keep the baby is people with Down Syndrome can still be successful in life. Although a survey of women who have been told by their doctors that their child could have Down Syndrome were not told current information “Few doctors offered an up-to-date description of how capable a person with Down syndrome can be” (Whitehead, 2006). Susan be happy to have that child she has wanted in order to start her own family and be glad that God blessed her with a child at
(Psalm 127:3) Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. “Abortion is wrong, God doesn’t approve of ending a life just because a person has regrets about how things turned out”, (Genesis 6:6-7). In this scenario it is the parents choice to decide what they want to do but according to Christian Worldview beliefs about God and Humanity, God creates every human and it is only his right to take the life and abortion is simply a murder and God does not allow this. However in this issue Susan got pregnant after trying for long and the fetus is Down syndrome, therefore bring that child into world is suffering but it is also a matter of concern that God gave a life inside her after a long time, maybe it is a God’s blessing to her. Just by knowing that the child will born with some disabilities it is not wise to stop the heat beat of child, Susan should not listen to anyone but just to her heart and belief in God and move forward with her
They believe that pregnant women should be offer screening for Down syndrome no matter their age. Before women who were over the age of 35 were suggested to get a Down syndrome screening done. However, now they are suggesting that any woman who is currently pregnant should be offered the chance to have a screening done. The goal of this test is to provide women with the best high quality detection rates with just a few false positive results. As the director of this organization and having a child of my own that has Down syndrome this topic could be difficult to approach in the aspect of seeing the reason why people would want to know whether their child has down syndrome or not. The two main reasons for wanting to know if a child has Down syndrome in the early stage of pregnancy is to consider terminating the pregnancy or so that they have time to make living arrangement to accommodate to child’s special needs. In this case I do agree that women should be offer the opportunity to know if their child might have Down syndrome to prepare themselves physically and emotionally. This would allow them to have time to prepare a good life for this child and accommodate to their special needs. However, women should not use this screening as an opportunity to terminate pregnancies just because the child has Down syndrome. I know that
Susan has being trying for many years to have a child but she couldn’t concide at any other time but the one that God choiced for her. It’s unfortunate that the doctors told her that her baby will be born with down syndrome, however that those not give her the right to distroye something that God has created in his own image. One way she can handle this issues is to pray to God for him to restore the health of child before delivery or she can listen to Richard whom, obvious does not believe in a God and regret her decision forever. This can be a difficult call to make for a non believer, because most of them think of the physical aspect of life, like Richard said it is be to end the misory of both the child and the mother.
After trying for many years, Susan finally gets pregnant. Unfortunately, a blood test confirms that her baby has Down syndrome, and her doctors suggest she abort the fetus. Susan has a successful career and wants to maintain a healthy balance between her career and family. Yet she feels very uncomfortable with abortion. She seeks some advice from Richard, an influential professor of evolutionary biology who has spent his career seeking to further human potential and minimize human suffering. When Susan asks Richard if she should abort the fetus or give birth to a baby with Down syndrome, Richard replied that human beings should increase happiness and decrease suffering in this world, and that therefore he would suggest that she abort, though he also stated that she must make this choice for herself. Richard emphasized the lifelong suffering of both the child with Down syndrome and Susan as the child’s caretaker and stated that it may be immoral to bring a baby into the world if she knew the kind of suffering the child would experience. In fact, Richard suggested that perhaps the most ethical course of action would be to prevent this baby from living a life full of suffering. (This scenario is based on the following article by Richard Dawkins (2014): https://richarddawkins.net/2014/08/abortion-down-syndrome-an-apology-for-letting-slip-the-dogs-of-twitterwar/). How should Susan respond? What decision should she make if her baby would suffer with Down syndrome, yet
Discovering you are pregnant with a child is supposed to be one of the best days of your life, but finding out your baby has the one extra 21st chromosome could change everything. Author and national correspondent for the New York Times, Amy Harmon, fights for children and families affected by the disease in her article, “Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus.” Harmon recognizes in her article that raising a child with this disease is not easy. She provides evidence of this by including quotes and personal stories from parents and family members whose loved ones are affected by it. She illustrates a genuine passion for the growing number of parents that are “Convinced that more couples would chose to continue the pregnancies if they better appreciated what it meant to raise a child with Down syndrome”(Harmon). To better put it in perspective, an estimated 90% of women chose to have an abortion if they are given a positive diagnosis for Down syndrome.
Editing the so-called ‘defaults’ in unborn children is similar to playing God and would produce a society akin to one in a dystopian novel. The belief that we are all created equally has always been a part of our morals. Parents should love their children no matter what, including the parents of those with genetic disorders such as down syndrome. Beneath this unconditional love, however, hides the idea that our children would be better off without such conditions. It is within our human nature to strive for perfection, including perfect disorder-less children.
To begin with, there has always been a huge issue with the topic of abortion, why? Well, it’s a tough subject and can get extremely emotional and very defensive. Honestly, people just need to open up their eye’s and understand that it's murder and not just a choice. It is murder because two can create a blessing and the choice of aborting it, is more like a sacrifice for the reason a mother can’t carry a baby for nine months. Whether a person is a teen, young adult, or an adult and is in a horrible situation that believes they cannot proceed with the pregnancy, they should know there are other options. Teens aborting an unborn baby is not a choice and should be banned because it is wrong without parental consent, the rights of a child, and
When such a condition is detected, or highly suspected, what then? According to Farrell et al., (2014) physicians are most concerned with the ethical issue of pregnancy termination. In the case of Down Syndrome, this is with good cause. A systemic review by Natoli, Ackerman, McDermott and Edwards (2012) found a weighted mean termination rate following a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome was 67%, with a range of 61% - 93%. The evidence they presented suggested that termination rates varied according to maternal age, race, and gestational age. (These variances alone open another ethical can of worms). But one can see, after only brief examination of this one genetic screen, why physicians, and society in general, should be concerned. There is no concensus regarding whether or not pregnancy termination is ethical in and of itself, let alone when one decides to terminate due to knowledge of specific genetic markers or
There are many limitations valued when it comes to the right of abortion. The news media still outlines the pros and cons of anti-abortion rights in certain-states-to soon, the entire country. My perspectives on the issue of abortion have been entitled from it to never be banned among citizen’s rights. The reproduction of pregnancy has been emphasized heavily on a mother’s decision to abort their child, but the father of the child plays an active role since he considers to that particular title. Through this current issue, majority of the people against abortion do not seem to have an open mind to how much it primarily affects the decision of the mother amongst her own views of considering abortion.
Abortion is a horrible thing, weather the baby is going to have problems or not, it shouldn't be aloud. Every child should get a chance to live, Just because it may have Down syndrome or autism etc doesn't mean that it shouldn't get a go at life. Iceland is about to become the first country where no one with Down syndrome are born as 85% of their women are terminating the pregnancy. The CBS news website quoted that “Iceland has two people with Down syndrome born each year.” This
There are many people with permanent disability’s that contribute to our society in very useful ways. In most cases, these people are viewed as being courageous. This kind of a reaction is typical but not always honest. There are a lot of people are uncomfortable around those that are considered “less than normal”. In her article The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have, Patricia Bauer writes about Down’s syndrome and abortion. Bauer is a former reporter and bureau chief for the Washington Post.
Living in a world set up and built for able bodied people, it’s difficult for a disabled person to be brought up and adapt to carry out even the most simplest of everyday tasks. Aborting a disabled foetus may not intentionally be biologically discriminating, but instead, weighing up the consequences of continuing with the pregnancy until the stage of giving birth, taking into account what life will be like for the foetus in the future.
At 13 weeks into her pregnancy, 29-year-old Jessica Smith lost her 5th baby, lifesitenews states. “I expected to be handed a blob that early into pregnancy. But instead, I was handed a perfectly formed tiny baby. He had perfectly formed fingers and toes. He had tiny, completely identifiable ears, nose, and mouth,” Jessica Smith told lifesitenews. According to Procon, abortion is one of the most debated topics in the United States (Procon). Planned Parenthood states, there are two different ways a woman can undergo an abortion, the abortion pill, or an in-clinic abortion. The pill only works up to ten weeks into a pregnancy. The doctor will give a woman her first pill in the clinic, and anywhere from six to 48 hours later, a woman can take the second one at home. There are two different types of in-clinical abortions. A suction abortion is used for a pregnancy anywhere between ten and 16 weeks. It uses suction to empty the uterus. Dilation and evacuation is used for a pregnancy anytime after 16 weeks and involves suction, and medical tools to empty a woman’s uterus (Planned Parenthood). Abortion results in terminating an unwanted pregnancy and should be illegal worldwide.
. Down syndrome is not a disease that someone catches and is not caused by difficulties during the pregnancy, it is a genetic condition. This condition is caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in the body’s cells and causes a redundant amount of proteins to be formed. All cells of the body derive from a single cell formed by the fusion of a father’s sperm and a mother’s egg. Each cell carries a nucleus full of genetic material known as genes. These genes are inherited from both the mother and father. Each cell normally contains 46 pairs of chromosomes. 23 chromosomes come from one parent and 23 from the other, hence the 46 pairs. When it comes to children with down syndrome, one of the chromosomes does not separate properly and so the
As science advances, it is becoming very common for parents from all over the world to select their babies gender by abortion. However, this trend is unacceptable and detrimental to the natural balance of things, society and the future of humanity.