[chub500]

My parents were manipulated into having prenatal disability tests because of my mom's low amniotic fluid during my sister's pregnancy. Tests came back positive and the doctors recommended abortion. My parents were horrified, being pro-life. They endured a traumatic next few months and a premature delivery. That was 1989. My sister was fine but it left my parents with enduring resentment of doctors to this day.

My abortion "policy" has been that it should be illegal to knowingly put an unborn fetus in jeopardy (unless the mother's life is at risk of course) as soon as the pregnancy is known beyond reasonable doubt. I can't imagine any other policy that doesn't dance with eugenics.

I think that the government's prerogative should be facilitating adoption for the baby and mitigating the "unavoidable" inequity to the mother biology has put upon her.

I understand many disagree with the above, I only ask that you keep an open mind as I also try to do about one of the trickiest moral quandaries in the present age.

[Damorian]

This is what frustrates me as well. I know two people who were told that their children will have down syndrome with almost complete certainty, and their kids ended up completely fine, at least in this regard. We're on our third child and the screening and push to make a decision is at every appointment. On our first pregnancy, after the first ultrasound the doctor told us there was a "roughly 10%" chance she had down syndrome and asked us what we wanted to do. As if I'm going to kill my kid over a slim chance at disability determined by a grainy picture from a 10+ year old ultrasound machine operated by someone just trying to make it to their lunch break. I can't help but wonder how many parents terminate perfectly healthy children.

[orwin]

Doesn't low amniotic fluid result in premature delivery in anycase? The doctor will try to help you make it to 35 weeks but its often not possible. Also if i remember correctly, Doctors try to add amniotic fluid during delivery to avoid complication for the mother and the children (else it can be bloody and infection-prone).

Also, maybe i agree on principle that abortion should be a terrible choice (i've have not thought this through yet), but a lot of my friends or close family are educators/youth counselors (i have been one myself in another life) and even with a big social security net (unlike the US), some lives are just so unbelievably sad i sometime think we should tests the parent before allowing them to have a child. I'm joking, but some days, not really.

To put the pro-life choice into perspective, of the 4 girls present in the "foyer" i was working at ten years ago (google translate give me reception center or youth club, its an orphanage for 11yo+), the only one still alive was blowing guys in the toilets since she was 12. At least she was proactive and asked money for it. The other 3 died, one suicide at 14, the other two "accident" between 17 and 19 yo (they did not leave a note). I only have new from one of the 30 guys i was trying to help at the time, he is still living in the street at 23yo, my mother just got him to do the paperwork to get a social security card and taught him how to use the formation center locals to cook for himself, so i guess he is making steps, but he was one of those we had hope for when he was 14, so knowing he is in the street since he is 18 make me feel like a failure.

I'm pretty sure nobody really wants to know those exist, know their past, their mothers, fathers or stepfathers, but still, they exist. I can't be pro-life when i've seen them suffer, seen them kill themselves, either literally or with drugs. Or not being able to live at all. I've seen a boy with no autism, aged 6, act like a 3yo around noon and bedtime and having a lot of issue with urinating and defecating (i was specialized 3-6). Asked the director why. If this kid manage to pass the mental trauma his father inflicted him, the physical damages will stay with him for the rest of his life. Some people should never, ever be parents. The killing of foetus is inconsequential until we've fixed how we take care of our children. Or maybe sterilizing people is the way to go.

[hi41]

I know of at least two families who got told by the doctor that they have to abort the fetus because if the Down syndrome test. Is there a financial benefit to the doctor? Why would they keep pressing on that? The baby was born okay.