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. …show more content…
New that year, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists began to offer a safer screening procedure to pregnant women of all ages, considering most children with the disease were born to mothers under the age of 35. Now, new mothers are able to know if their child has the extra chromosome with a simple sonogram and two blood tests, which has proved to be accurate without putting the child in
Although there is been a rare chance (pause) for people with Down Syndrome to become a parents. Men with Down Syndrome are considered as sterile although the causes of sterile are not known in detail yet. sterile meaning us a male with Down Syndrome not be able to produce children or young.There are confirmed cases that male with Down Syndrome became fathers. Many scientist have working on to find out why can’t most of the people with Down Syndrome can’t became parents. The percentage of female become parent is 25% and foe the male is 5% of a change that they can be parents. There is a 50% chance that they will have a child with Down Syndrome.
Did you know that close to 6,000 babies are born with Down syndrome every year in the United States? The most common type of chromosomal condition is Down syndrome and there are a few different types of this condition, along with, several different traits that are displayed with this condition. I have always been interested in the topic of Down syndrome and thought it was a great idea to study more about it for my speech. First, I will tell you about what Down syndrome is and who discovered it. Second, I will talk to you about some symptoms and characteristics of this chromosome disorder. Third, I will discuss the 3 different types of this condition, and lastly, how they diagnose Down syndrome prenatally.
. 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
Down syndrome occurs in people who were born with three, rather than two, copies of the 21st chromosome. This extra genetic material is what brings about the effects of Down’s syndrome. It is often characterized by an impairment of cognitive (process of thought) ability. Most people with Down syndrome have lower than average, mild to moderate, cognitive ability and this cannot be predicted at birth. A smaller number fall into the severe impairment range. Physically, people with Down’s syndrome are smaller in stature, have less muscle tone, and have noticeably different facial features. The number of these births occurs approximately in one out of every one thousand (ndss.org). As of 2007, the number of people in the United States with Down syndrome stood at about 350,000. These numbers will shrink because now (most) potential parents can know the condition of the fetus early. This information is included to let the reader relate to the struggles that some with Down syndrome goes through.
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.
"...Women who were denied abortions 'Felt more regret and anger' and 'less relief and happiness' than women who had abortions” (“Should Abortion”). This proves that being denied an abortion when needed or wanted can have devastating consequences on a woman's mental health. Women in these situations felt helpless and probably do not know what to do with their future. Finally, abortions give women the opportunity to not deliver a baby when it is revealed that it has a deadly or incurable disease. Fetuses can have anencephaly where the brain doesn't grow, limb–body wall complex where are the organs grow outside of the body, and Down Syndrome. "'Many couples... don't have the resources, don't have the emotional stamina, don't have the family support!' [to raise a child with Down syndrome]."
Thousands of babies are born a day in the United States. One out every 691 babies born has Down syndrome, a disorder caused by an extra copy of the chromosome twenty one. In short, this syndrome shortens the person’s life span, and causes assorted severity of mental retardation. Those carrying this extra chromosome have flattened noses, rounder faces, are petite in size, and are much more prone to additional unhealthy disturbances or effects on substantial systems in the body.
Kristen Isgro highlights the challenges that the mothers and caregivers go through on a daily basis. Three groups of women, ages ranging from 33 to 66 and all having a child with Down syndrome, discussing the issues such as how they advocate for their children. They also discuss what they have learned from experience dealing with health care providers and educators, and deal with how their children are viewed in different settings.
While wrongful birth does not just represent children with down syndrome it represents all kinds of birth problems children are born with. A couple won a $4.5 million in a lawsuit for wrongful birth. The parents claimed “They would have never brought their son Bryan into the world if they had known about his horrific disabilities” (Hallowell, 2011). The parents son was born with only three limbs, no arms and one leg; however, if Dr. Marie Morel and technicians at OB/GYN specialists of the Palm Beaches did properly administered two ultrasounds and seen he was missing three limbs the parents would have terminated the pregnancy (Howell, 2011). The parents “understandably upset that they had no warning about the
“When families get a diagnosis prenatally, they use the words ‘shock’, ‘sadness’, ‘disbelief’”, says Sarah Cullen of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress. “ You feel like like the rug is pulled out from under you. You feel very heavy. You feel very, very alone” (Szabo 1). When parents receive the results of their prenatal test, many do not know what to do. They can feel very overwhelmed, because their baby is unhealthy and there may be nothing that they can do about it. Often the doctor does not know what to do either, because there may not be a cure for the disease.This kind of news alone is agonizing for parents. Mothers should not have genetic testing done to see if their baby has diseases because it causes unnecessary anxiety for the parents, tests may not always be accurate, and it is unethical.
I will first explore what medical ethics entails, then evaluate whether prenatal screening is necessary and whether it is discriminatory as claimed. Based on the benefits, success, statistical data, I will defend the perspective of physically challenged individuals by highlighting numerous success records of families with children affected from Down’s syndrome as it is widely common.
Life defined by the Oxford Dictionary is “The condition or attribute of living or being alive; animate existence. Opposed to death or inanimate existence” (Life n., 2015). A person with a mental or physical disabilities by the definition above, despite their disabilities, still has life. There however is a heated conversation on the worth and quality of life of someone with disabilities specifically Down’s Syndrome. The discussion is on the subject of whether allowing the life of someone born with Downs Syndrome, and all the hardships that come with it, is a life worth starting. This paper will take a look at the Ethical Dilemma of aborting babies with Down Syndrome, the Christian worldview of the quality of life, and the options that can be
of babies born with Down syndrome elevated by about 30 percent. The risk of a child having
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
Have you ever wonder or questioned the disorder of down syndrome? According to many National Down Syndrome Society within the United States, Down syndrome has occurred one out of eight hundred births. It is the most frequent form of mental retardation and characterized by well-defined events and distinctive features. It’s a lifelong disorder caused by a genetic defeat that’s none curable. It takes people with patients and kind hearts to care for people with Down syndrome disorder.