Down Syndrome and the Pressure to Abort

Zenit News Agenc ^ | March 9, 2006 | Elizabeth Schlitz

[Graybeard58]

Thanks for the information. I missed it when you first posted it.

[primeval patriot]

Sorry you had so much personal experience with the darker side of this issue.

I'm sorry I had to sound so negative but what I wrote is the hardcore reality some of the fanatics on this board need to hear.

[primeval patriot]

I have spent 25 years raising my profoundly physically and mentally disabled son and I am extremly blessed.

The look of pain and weariness on my parents' faces breaks my heart.

Our family has been sacrificing for almost forty years now and relief will only come upon his or our death.

We're tired of sacrificing. I'm ready to turn in my hair-shirt and leave the monastery.

[BlackVeil]

I don't know if you are aware of this book, I wanted to draw it to attention:

http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/non-fict/db.htm

The title is "Defiant Birth" and it is memoirs from women who resisted medical pressure to abort their babies, who had being prenatally diagnosed (not always accurately diagnosed) with disabilities.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yes, reality needs to be kept on the front burner. It would be nice if just lots of "caring" and "love" and "faith" could soften the harsh realities of mental retardation and mental illness. But it just ain't so. The fanatics here need to learn that, but so do the fanatic leftists who control the legal framework surrounding mental incapacity in this country. My half sister is schizophrenic, lives in a makeshift shelter of cardboard boxes and tarps, long ago lost all her teeth to a combination of rot and muggings, and is constantly in and out of jail on disorderly conduct charges. But despite my father's best efforts, it has proved absolutely impossible to get her institutionalized.

A while back, I saw a post here from someone who knew a family with a teenaged autistic boy. They had resisted institutionalization, going to all sorts of lengths to keep him from doing serious harm to himself or other family members, including locking him securely into a padded room at night, so that it would be safe for other family members to go to sleep. They got a serious reality check when the boy assaulted a younger sister, leaving her with permanently impaired vision.