women and abortion and genetic testing

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Be careful of how you phrase that. Some people who choose abortion for a fetus that would become a severely handicapped person do so because they do not have sufficient financial and/or social resources to care for a disabled person. The "devaluing of life" is often on the part of greedy insurance companies, selfish governments and uncaring and/or equally disadvantaged peers, not on the part of glib pregnant people.



Those "amazing parents" could all have children tomorrow if they weren't racist. They're greedy for healthy, white babies, of which there are few. There are plenty of sick white babies, healthy brown babies, and healthy white kids available for adoption from foster care, who most adoptive parents don't want.



That is hardly universal.
* ... the risk of significant psychological problems was "miniscule from a public health perspective".
* ... legal abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in the first trimester does not pose a psychological hazard for most women.
* ... women who are terminating pregnancies that are wanted and personally meaningful, who lack support from their partner or parents for the abortion, or who have more conflicting feelings or are less sure of their decision before hand may be a relatively higher risk for negative consequences.
* ... severe negative reactions are rare and are in line with those following other normal life stresses.

Source: References section of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_and_mental_health



Win-win... one of the wins is for the adoptive parents, the other win is for the baby.

... but what about the birth mother?
http://web.archive.org/web/200712030322 ... _knew.html

sg33, I can assure you that an insurance company would rather a special needs baby be aborted - that costs a lot less than long term care. As far as the children available for adoption, that varies widely with location, unless you'd like to pay 30K plus to import a child. I struggled for years with infertility and looked closely into the matter. There were no babies at all in my area, healthy, white, black, etc. There were a lot of older children from all races and abilities though. Sure most people would like a healthy baby. I was simply making an observation on the fact that women go to tremendous medical lengths to create a pregnancy and at the same time there are many women looking to get rid of a pregnancy. I was just noting a possible natural solution. As for your statistics on mental health, they are simply that - statistics. Abortions may lead to psychological problems "miniscule from a public health perspective," but I'm speaking from a personal perspective. Regret is not measured by statistics and my mother's psychological problems were far from miniscule. The birth mother is not part of the win-win equation because having an unwanted pregnancy is not a win situation to begin with. Either you will abort or give the child up for adoption - either way there is no win.

My devaluing of life comment had more to do with the OP's implication that people with the mentioned conditions such as asthma and homosexuality (not that that is a condition) would be placed on the too messed up to be born list.

I have autistic disorder.

This is how I'd react if I found out my foetus had the following:

Autism - I would definitely not abort it as he/she has as much right to live as I do, and I'm autistic. Even if I wasn't, I still wouldn't get rid as I think that autism is not something that should be simply exterminated. I have friends with Asperger's and autism and the thought of aborting an autistic foetus is unthinkable.
Homosexuality - I feel the same about homosexuality as I do autism, aborting a homosexual person is unthinkable.
Down's Syndrome, Asthma, Haemophilia - again, unthinkable.
Cerebral Palsy - I really don't know what I would do concerning this. I know three people with cerebral palsy. Two of them have it pretty bad and are unable to speak or look after themselves. However, they are very affectionate and friendly, but I wonder at the quality of their lives. The other guy that I know can speak but, like the others, is unable to walk or look after himself. I am really, utterly, totally unsure as to how I would deal with it, I guess I'd have to be told first on this one. My views on abortion are this: I think you should only abort a child if it will live in pain it's entire life, have no quality of life, if the mother's life is in danger becaue of the pregnancy or if it is a product of rape or incest (rapists don't deserve to violate a woman and then expect her to keep his child, sorry). Cerebral Palsy's a difficult one as it can come in different extremes and only one of the three I know with it are in pain, but all of them have a poor quality of life as they rely on others to look after them constantly. As you may have gathered by now, I am finding it difficult to reach a decision on this.

I agree with what you said. I had teacher whos daughter had Cerebral Palsy and she can do lots of stuff.

I would not abort for any reason, because I believe that life begins at conception, and I love people who have disabilities. I affectionately call them 'Sids' after my favourite character.

I am PDD-NOS and would not abort my baby no matter what I found out about him. If my child wanted to die, and meant it, I would help him/her, but I would never force death on my own child if he/she did not want it. The same thing for any of you. You are my family. I love you all not in spite of the fact that you have ASDs, but maybe even because of them. Because you know the rights of the individual and that individuality needs to be respected and not trodden on, violated or changed.

Diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome.

For homosexuality (or not 100% heterosexual orientation), no. Asthma would depend on the likely severity, if it were calculable. Asperger's & Autism would depend on whether each is determined to be genetically different from the other or not, calcualted severity, etc. For the rest, assuming a test within the first trimester was available, yes.

I was diagnosed with AS and I would not abort my child, no matter what disability or sexual orientation they have. Even if my child would turn out severely mentally ret*d, I would still keep them because I believe every child has a right to live and I would not be able to live with the guilt. If I felt I wouldn't be able to take care of them I would put them up for adoption, but I would opt for an open adoption so I can still be a part of their life. I believe abortion should only be used in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother and I also believe that if you are not ready to raise kids, you shouldn't be having sex in the first place. If I did get pregnant, I would still allow for safe genetic testing so that I can be prepared to raise a child with hemophilia, cerebral palsy, or any other birth defect/disability. Like most of you, I believe that aborting an autistic or gay child is disgusting and unimaginable.

do you (most of you) really have to be so judgemental in your posts? a simple yes, no would suffice, no point getting all righteous about it

Didn't really see it as a yes or no question myself and peoples feelings run deep on both sides of the isuse.

ok I guess most people do get all emo about it. nevermind then.

"People are emo too" - Benny Ratzinger (chief emo)

1)I'm NT

2)This came up when I was pregnant. Because of my age, the OB strongly advised that I have an amniocentesis test done which would rule out- among other things- Down's Syndrome (I can't remember what the other things were, but nothing from your list). I declined, stating that I wouldn't abort regardless of the results. She gave me a talking to on how difficult it would be to raise a Down's Syndrome baby but I still declined.

As far as I can tell, a lot of women declined. The test for Down's Syndrome has been available for quite some time now and there are babies born with it even so. I know people are very concerned about a potential test for autism that would result in abortion and the end of autism/Asperger's Syndrome. That potentiality has been a reality for Down's Syndrome for many years and yet babies are born with it even so. So I think in reality saying "I would not abort" is something many pregnant women have chosen in reality.

Some women found out before hand that they are having a baby with downs and are just better prepared to take care of the kids needs like getting a idea of what to expect, also those kids some times have heart isuses they are born with so it's better for the doctors to know before hand so they can be ready if the need the extra care.

1. Aspie (undiagnosed)

2. No, I wouldn't. Further to that, when I was pregnant I had a dodgy result on the spina bifida test. Long story short I spent three days awake at night having panic attacks until I got a further test to rule it out. My baby turned out just fine and looking back I think I wouldn't have aborted even if that meant he was going to be born with a disability.
By the way, is there a screening test for homosexuality??? that's not a disability

I'm not sure what homosexuality is doing on the list either to be honest..
But anyway...

I am Aspie, Mother, and Preganat with no. 2.

And I would not abort ANY of the above, or anything else. SOme are admittedly more serious than others... I have seen managable asthma, I have no issues with Aspergers at all, and I don't understand what Homosexuality is mentioned for.
The other two are harder on the baby in my opinion, but it would just mean it would be harder on me and baby to make things work. It's STILL a baby!! A living baby with a heart beat, feelings that can feel pain!