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Dr. John Mullen
English 102
18 April 2016
Could the Down Syndrome be a reason for parents to give up on their
child?
According to "Down Syndrome", an article found in Encyclopædia Britannica, Down
Syndrome is a genetic disorder, initiated by an extra copy of 21st chromosome. It is characterized
as the inability of people to follow the natural mental and physical course of development. The
syndrome is recognized by some physical signs such as “a small head, flattened face, short neck,
up-slanted eyes, low-set ears, enlarged tongue and lips, and sloping chin” and by the fact that
those, who suffer from the syndrome have mental disabilities, which vary from mild to severe.
The impact of the disease is so strong that babies are born with serious health issues and are
doomed to carry them for the rest of their lives. The article reveals that 1 in every 700–1,000
babies are born with Down Syndrome, however, as women grow older the chances to give birth
to a kid with Down Syndrome increase.
The information in "Down Syndrome" shows that Trisomy is the most common among
the three forms of Down syndrome. It occurs during the period of cells division and is
characterized as an existence of extra copy of chromosome 21st.The second form is the mosaic
one, which occurs rarely and is less severe than the trisomy because the extra copy of the
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chromosome does not comprise in all cells of the individual. Based on the article, Translocation
is the third form of the syndrome and the only one that could be inherited. In this case the
chromosome breaks down and attaches to other one. People who have reorganization in the
chromosome but no extra material are only carriers of the syndrome. It is said that they have
balanced translocation and this is why they do not carry the signs of the disease. Inferring from
the article there is no big difference between translocation and trisomy, both could be highly
severe. (This information helps readers understand that based on the form of the syndrome the
severity range a lot. Basically, the child can be born with less complications and be classified as
a mild sufferer but on the other hand, it can be born with a lot of health problems and belong to
the group of seriously affected by the syndrome.)
(However, thanks to a new medical invention the Down Syndrome can be detected before
the child is born, which gives an opportunity for parents to find out if their kid is healthy or not.
This information can be received by a test called prenatal diagnosis, which examines the genes of
the fetus and determine if it has some abnormalities.) According to Zachary P. Hart who wrote a
journal regarding the impact of the prenatal diagnosis on the pregnancy termination decisions,
these tests are done between the twelfth and fourteenth week and usually prenatal diagnosis
makes parents face the dilemma whether to keep a child regardless of his health issues or to
terminate the pregnancy. (This decision is tough and requires a lot of consideration and further
tests in order to examine the severity of the disease, since the amount of the damage caused by
the syndrome actually helps parents to make their choice whether to keep the baby or not.)
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The range of the syndrome severity can vary greatly consequently, many children are
diagnosed with highly severe mental and physical complications from an early stage of fetal
development. In such cases it is reasonable for parents to agree on a termination of the pregnancy
considering the psychological, emotional and financial damages that this disease can bring to the
family.
(People that are about to become parents receive only positive emotions. The fact that
they expect a baby makes their lives full of happiness. Some of the couples start making plans
for their kids even before the birth, hoping only for the best for their child. However, sometimes
things do not happened the way we expect them.) Mark Schrad, an assistant professor at
Villanova University, describes a story of a couple that did not decide to terminate the pregnancy
and did not have any second thoughts about it because they knew they will love their kid and for
them Down Syndrome was not a reason to give up on their child. They consider prenatal
diagnosis a way of selecting and designing the children. For them to be prepared to become a
parent means to accept the child as a gift, to love it as it is and be ready to deal with all
difficulties that may arise. (They share that despite all complications that they have been through
their daughter is a loving child and that the syndrome do not prevent her from being happy and
chasing her dreams.)
According to another article by David Perry, a journalist who writes about disability
issues, people with disabilities should be given a chance to live. He says that every day he meets
people with Down Syndrome, who have jobs, communicate freely with others and form strong
relationships, which is a reason why their potential should not be underestimated.( In addition, he
claims that people have to change their opinion about Down syndrome, because it is
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exaggeration to say that people with disabilities have fewer opportunities to receive good
education and to find a better job.)
Some states in USA such as North Dakota decided to make it illegal for clinics to
perform abortion after a diagnosis of Down syndrome because by choosing to abort a fetus with
disabilities people are discriminating the ones that are already born. Tamar Lewin’s article in
New York Times Magazine shows that the ban was introduced because everyone has the right to
live regardless of the circumstances and that nobody can take away this right. He cites the
president of Ohio Right to Life( Mike Gonidakis), who says:
We all want to be born perfect, but none of us are, and everyone has a right to
live, perfect or not. You go to any supermarket or mall and see these families who just
happen to have a child with Down syndrome, and they will tell you how fortunate they
are to have those children. Pretty soon, we’re going to find the gene for autism. Are we
going to abort for that, too?
However, here arises the question to what extent is the fetus considered a person in the
time of the abortion and does it have the same rights as a human being? (James Fieser, a
professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, did a research on the moral issues of abortion.
He started with a general information of the development of the fetus and then he argued about
the morality of abortion by giving pro and contra arguments.) He stated that there is no clear
indication if the fetus could be considered a person and has certain human rights. However,
based on his research “the ability to conceive of oneself as existing in time” is what defines us as
humans, since the fetus does not possess this ability, the mother’s right of self-determination
dominates over the fetus’ rights. When a woman continues her pregnancy without her desire her
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right to make choices is violated, which is a controversy with any moral norms. (Ann Furedi is
another pro-choice defender, the chief executive of British Pregnancy Advisory Service, an
organization that aims to support the women whose choice is to abort their baby with
abnormalities. In addition, she is a journalist who wrote an article regarding the ethical issues of
aborting a fetus.) In this article she argues that aborting a fetus with Down syndrome should not
be considered as a promotion of reduction of disabled people but as woman’s right to make a
choice, which affects her life. Furedi says that “abortion in any instance should be based on a
right women have to make decisions about their own lives. This is important because it implies a
respect for women's moral worth and their moral autonomy.” This decision should not interfere
with public law but with personal preference, since the individual will live with the
consequences of his or her decision therefore, to deny a woman’s right to make abortion is
equivalent to a denial of her existence as a human being.( She claims that it is better to avoid
giving birth to a child with Down syndrome but she does not promote the opinion that the life of
a person already born with disability is of less value. She says that health is always better than
illness and that the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy with an unhealthy child should be
women’s since they can decide for themselves if they can face such a challenge or they are not
mentally and emotionally strong to bear it. )
In addition, every parent wants the best for his children, and nobody wants to see his or
her kids suffer. In almost all cases people with Down syndrome have self-awareness, which
helps them understand that they are different from the others. Knowing that health issues lower
their potential for chasing their dreams has an enormous impact on children’s emotional state.
They are vulnerable to feelings of sadness and feeling of incapacity to live fully. Some people
consider being unable to follow their dreams living a life of second-rate. This is the reason why
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many couples get scared when they find out their kid is going to have some disabilities, so they
decide to terminate the pregnancy.
Due to the severity of the disease there are cases in which the child is born with many
complications. According to Michel E. Weijerman and Peter de Winter, half of children are born
with heart disease, which require immediate surgical interventions that are not always efficient.
Almost all children with Down syndrome are born with hearing loss, vision problems and mental
retardation, which vary from mild to highly severe. Due to the numerous complications that are
constantly arising during the life of a person with Down syndrome, he needs a lifetime care from
his relatives. Depending on the severity of the disease some people are not able to maintain an
independent lifestyle. (An example of a case in which the person needs constant care is presented
by Adam Blanchard. He is a research technician in the faculty of medicine and health science at
the University of Nottingham who ) tells a story of a mother who wished she had terminated her
pregnancy, because her son at the age of 47 still needs her constant care and even though she
loves him, he made her life and the life of her husband stressful and problematic. Her concerns
are about his life after she and her husband die. He points out that it is very easy for critics to
make judgmental comments regarding this woman’s statement without having the same
experience, but instead of doing that critics should face the truth and admit that there are a lot of
people whose life became miserable after giving birth to a child that is doomed to have an
unsustainable and unhappy life.
Another reason why parent have the right to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy of
a disabled child is that some people cannot afford to take care of a kid with diagnosis of Down
syndrome. As explained in the previous example many kids need constant care, because the
disease caused many complications, so one of the parents is forced to quit their job in order to
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take care of his or her child, which on the other hand reduces the monthly income of the family
and prevents them from covering the expenses required for the treatments of the complications
that arise after the birth of the child. The inability to provide the child with healthy environment
makes the parents of the child start blaming themselves and should be taken into consideration
when making the decision whether to terminate the pregnancy or not.
The major aim of parents is to make their child feel happy, which gets harder when the
kid has some health issues. The integration of people with Down syndrome into the society is not
an easy task even nowadays. Based on others, attitudes people who suffer from the syndrome
realize that are different, which lowers their confidence and their self-esteem. This leads to
serious communication issues that prevent them to build relationships with people, which leads
to other problems such as feelings of sadness and even depression. Also, bad attitudes by others
will always create barriers for disabled people and will reduce their quality of life. When giving
birth to their child, parents have to make sure that they are providing it with the opportunity of
leading a healthy life. Just existing does not mean living a life of full value. People’s purpose in
life is not only to create children but to provide them with a world full of optimism and
happiness. According to Razib Khan, who does not reject that people with Down Syndrome
could have happy lives but supports the claim that “humans flourish best when they are beautiful,
intelligent, and healthy”. He suggests that nowadays beauty and intelligence are becoming major
values for people even though people try to deny it this is the truth. He says that diversity is
strength but not when it is a diversity of disease. This statement does not make him intolerant
towards people of disabilities but he reveals the fact that in a world where values such as
physical appearance and intelligence rule, people with certain disabilities have no way to live a
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life of full value. According to him, our main goal as a society should be to create a better world,
where everybody should feel good:
In sum, humans differ, and that difference is not always a strength. The tall,
handsome, and intelligent, have traits which most people feel to be superior. There is
inequality. We cannot abolish inequality, but we can increase the basal level of human
quality of life. This may seem like an abstract digression, but it is not. In the near future
we will have a much better sense of our mutations, and those of our potential offspring.
Our values will guide our actions. Let’s have a frank and honest discussion about them.
In conclusion, there are plenty of stories about people who raised children with Down
Syndrome, some of them positive, others negative. Different cases show that some people are
happy they gave their child a chance to live, while others regret that they did not know about
prenatal diagnosis and that no one offered them a termination of the pregnancy. These opinions
are based on the severity of the disease, and usually parents who have a child with highly severe
disease are the ones that regret having it. Even if this sounds terrible from a moral point of view,
everybody should have the right to choose.
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Works Cited
Blanchard, Adam. "Mom Regrets Not Aborting Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Reason
May Shock You." Greenville Gazette. 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
"Down Syndrome." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica Academic. Encyclopædia Britannica
Inc., 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Fieser, James. "Abortion From Moral Issues that Divide Us and Applied Ethics: A Sourcebook."
The University of Tennessee. , Jan. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Furedi, Ann. "Abortion for Fetal Abnormality: Ethical Issues." Abortion for Fetal Abnormality:
Ethical Issues. 3 June 2009. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
Hart, Zachary P. "Ethically Communicating a Prenatal Down Syndrome Diagnosis: A
Theoretical Model Describing its Impact on Pregnancy Termination Decisions."
International Journal of Disability, Community & Rehabilitation 12.2. Web. 29 Mar.
2016.
Khan, Razib. "I Think Down Syndrome is Bad." Discover, 12 July 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2016.
Lewin, Tamar. "Ohio Bill Would Ban Abortion if Down Syndrome Is Reason." The New Yorker
Perry, David. "Don't Politicize My Son over Down Syndrome." CNN. CNN, 24 Aug. 2015. Web.
6 Apr. 2016.
Schrad, Mark L. "Does Down Syndrome Justify Abortion?" The New York Times. The New
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York Times, 3 Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.
Weijerman, Michel E., and J Peter de Winter. "The Care of Children with Down Syndrome."
European Journal of Pediatrics 169.12 (2010): 1445-52. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.