My sister had wanted a child for years and finally conceived in her early forties. Her OB-GYN immediately set upon her with all manner of statistics relating to higher incedence of Downs Syndrome and a variety of other maladies, pressuring her to abort. She even went so far as to point out supposed "abnormalities" in the ultrasound. My sister, who is just not assertive enough to tell this pushy propagandist of a "doctor" where to put her opinions, came home in tears on several occasions as a result.
To make a long story short, my sister and brother in law decided to have the baby, and she's a healthy, beautiful little girl, who will be three in May, the light of our lives.
I still go into a slow burn, whenever I think of how things could have turned out, had this supposed medical professional had had her way.
I understand your point but I also know a couple in their 40's that knew they were going to have a Down's Syndrome baby and sued their doctors after the birth of a severely retarded child because " the doctors did not advised them to abort the child" and now "our life is miserable". Or what about the woman that sued the doctor because he told her she was obese and a high risk for heart disease and she sued him "because he hurt my feelings". She lost in court and in less that a year she was dead of a massive infarct...call it poetic justice.
Nowadays physicians are seen as techs by certain patients, no loyalty, a "just give me my medicine" mentality. But things are changing because physicians are seeing patients now as "an insurance number" and are excluding from their practices patients that have crappy insurances (such as Cigna, Oxford, Medicare, Medicaid, and Aetna) in favor of PPO's, Blue Cross/Blue SHield or cash-paying customers. This is the beginning of the total decline and collapse in our health care delivery which will give opportunists like Hillary Clinton and the liberal left to propose new strategies in the health system that amount to socialized medicine.
I can tell you two more stories just like that one - women who were advised to abort "definitely seriously disabled" babies who turned out perfectly.
Technically true.....After 35 the incidence goes up, albeit slightly (something like 4 or 5 in 1000 at 35, vs 1.something per 1000 at 30). I've been looking into this a bit, as Mrs wbill is thinking about another Wbill Jr. But, as far as I'm concerned, those odds are still pretty darn good.
We went to a midwife with our last child. They asked us if we wanted all the Down's tests and so forth. Bascially, we had an ultrasound done, to give us a heads-up on any genetic abnormalities so that we could start treatment before birth (please don't ask the specifics, there were no problems, thank G*d, and after the ultrasound came back 'normal', I didn't hear too much the tech said after that...lol!) But - the gist was, if we could find out about something early, and begin treatment to help early, then to us, it made sense to check.
The doc would be remiss not to provide all possible info - "this is what we've found, these are the potential problems, and these are the options". But, to find out about a problem early to decide on an abortion and in fact pressure for an abortion, is ghoulish, I think. I'd have told the Dr. where to go, reported her to the AMA, and looked for a new one. Thankfully, in your case cooler heads prevailed and you've got a wonderful niece to show for it.
That is great news on the healthy and happy baby. To the defense of doctors (which there seems to be little on this thread) they have to cover a lot of bases any more because of the lawsuit industry. Do you wanna bet that if a doctor did not warn an older mother of all the risks he would lose his license if something went wrong.
If you really do not want doctors to know anything about your private life - do not go to a doctor at all.
I am horrified at what your sister's doctor did to her! I hope she's switched drs since then. How awful - like you're not worried about your unborn child enough, but your doctor is pressuring you to abort your child?
Good for your sister. There are millions more deaths from abortion than from guns. If you don't like what your doctor does or says, change doctors. No one is forcing you to see a doctor you cannot abide. As a matter of fact, my health is very good without seeing doctors.