I’ve spent the last several days attempting, and failing, to sit down and write something about Down’s Syndrome in response to, among others, this article from the Guardian. This article stems from the news that despite a significant increase in diagnoses, the number of babies born with Down’s syndrome has decreased because around 92% of these pregnancies end in abortion.
I find however that Archbishop Chaput, writing in First Things, has done a much better job than I could have hoped to, so I would urge you to read his article Conscience, Courage, and Children With Down Syndrome.
The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is never between some imaginary perfection or imperfection. The real choice is between love and unlove, between courage and cowardice, between trust and fear. And that’s the choice we face as a society in deciding which human lives we will treat as valuable, and which we will not.
I would also refer you to this letter, also from the Guardian, written in response to the same article addressed by Archbishop Chaput, from a mother of a child with Down’s who asks:
Why do we learn of the number of lost foetuses who don’t have Down’s syndrome but not the number “lost” who do? When my nine-year-old, who has Down’s syndrome, reads an article like this, why won’t it feel like ethnic cleansing?
No-one, absolutely no-one, disputes that raising a child with a disability can be immensely difficult. That’s why we all share in the responsibility to help these families in any way we can. Our medical establishment, our media, our entire society suffers from what Archbishop Chaput describes as “a kind of schizophrenia in our culture’s conscience”. This is often well meant, stemming from misguided compassion, but it not love. As noted in the original Guardian article, it is tragic when a healthy baby dies as a result of amniocentesis, but it is no less tragic when a baby with Down’s dies as a result of abortion. And is an indictment of our society that the fear of conditions like Down’s is so overwhelming that the risks of invasive procedures like amniocentesis are seen as worth taking.
The only way we should ever greet any pregnancy is with love and with recognition that each and every life is precious with it’s own special God-given value. We often tell school-children that if one of their friends or classmates comes to them with the news that they’re going to have a baby, their response should be “Congratulations!” closely followed by “I will help you in any way that I can.” This goes equally when we’re given the news that a friend or relative is preganant with, or has, a child with a disability. Children with disabilities can bring just as much, and even more, joy to the lives of their parents and those around them as healthy children. No one should ever feel that they have to have an abortion because they don’t believe that they would be able to cope and it’s the responsibility of all of us to help them cope, not out of pity but out of love.
Posted by gospeloflife 
Posted by gospeloflife 
Posted by gospeloflife 
