I do not think that all prenatal testing in and of itself is a bad thing, but obviously it all depends on how such test results are used. If they are used in order to give a reason to abort murder the child because he or she is not “perfect”, then that is without question wrong – morally, ethically and medically.
However if prenatal testing is used to diagnose a problem that in some cases can be treated in utero or prepare the OBY and the mom for what might be a high risk pregnancy or delivery as is sometimes the case with kids with Downs, prepare to have a neonatal team on standby in case of problems or birth defects and complications or even prepare the parents, put them in touch with Downs Syndrome advocacy and support groups – then I don’t see such testing as a bad thing.
For instance when my niece and her husband found out they were pregnant again, only 4 months after my niece had delivered their first daughter via an emergency c-section after 48 hours of labor and her having some preeclampsia, they found out on a routine sonogram that they were having triplets and that two of the babies shared the same uterine sack.
Her OBY at the time told my niece and her husband that this pregnancy was so “high risk” that she should either abort all three babies or have a “selective” reduction, i.e. abort/murder one or two of them for the sake of the other(s). He even went as far as to tell them that if she didn’t do this, that she might likely die from a ruptured uterus and hemorrhage out and bleed to death, or have a miscarriage and that he wouldn’t continue to be their OBY unless they at least agreed to have a “selective reduction”.
My nice and her husband were devastated but instead of listening to their OBY, they sought out another OBY, one specializing in multiples and high risk pregnancies and found him at the Penn State Milton Hershey Hospital (and FWIW, their doc was the same doc that delivered the sextuplets made famous in a TLC show, although FWIU, he didn’t have much nice things to say about that mom).
The new OBY told them that yes, there were risks, that the pregnancy would not be easy for her, but nothing like their previous OBY had made it out to be (and he basically called him an idiot for suggesting abortion and implied that he should probably find another career). He told my niece – “with my and my team’s experience, your dedication as a mom, and more importantly with God’s help, you and your babies will be just fine”.
But what the new OBY did was have my niece closely monitored especially for eclampsia and other complications. About halfway through her pregnancy, she had to get weekly hormone shots in order to prevent a miscarriage and ultrasounds to ensure the babies were doing/developing OK. Early on one sonogram looked as if the twins sharing the same uterine sack might have been conjoined twins that would have made the delivery even more complicated, but thankfully that was not the case.
And in her 3rd trimester she was put on “bed rest” and admitted to the Penn State Milton Hershey Hospital specialized high risk OBY ward. This put a great hardship on her husband and their not quite 1 year old daughter but was necessary to ensure a safe delivery that was scheduled to be done via a c-section, hopefully no sooner than at 32 weeks and the care she received was outstanding. And at 32 weeks, the night before the scheduled c-section, she went into labor and was rushed to the OR. And in the OR, there wasn’t just her OBY but a whole team of other doctors and nurses and 3 separate neo-natal teams, one for each of the babies. Her husband who was in the delivery room said it was like a highly skilled precision military operation – everyone worked together as a team but each one had a specific job and carried it out with precision. And my niece did have eclampsia and gestational diabetes and after giving birth was given medication for those issues.
All three babies were in the neo-natal ICU for several weeks. One of the girls (and all 3 were girls), the smallest of the 3, was born with a slight heart valve defect and with immature lungs and it was touch and go for her for the first week. But the heart valve defect was treated with medication and all three girls not only survived but thrived.
They are 7 years old now and you would never know they had been preemies.
And when their mom and dad and I and the rest of their loving family and friends look at them today, we can’t imagine life without them, and how sad and absolutely evil it would have been if one or any of them had been aborted.
The right priority!