Thursday, June 05, 2008

the future

I was thinking about our lives, the upcoming DS Conference, and the thrill I get listening to people like Karen Gaffney speak. I think about how I get so much out of trying to "be there" for new parents, and how incredibly moving it is to see them go through the process...when they finally get to acceptance it is so cool to see.
And I was thinking about the future. The news of this new 100% accurate drug test leaves me wondering. Abortion rates for DS are already well over 95%. What will happen when this simple bood test is readily available, and people panic and end their child's life based on a prenatal diagnosis...will not having to undergo ultrasound or amnio mean it is even easier to disassociate themselves from their baby, and end its life because of fear? of course it will. People dont like amnio because of the risk of miscarriage. That risk will be removed, and it is obvious that the abortion rates will climb even higher.
Why do Doctors want so badly to erradicate an entire group of people? What did someone with DS ever do to be seen as so inferior as to need to be killed? Who is driving this crazy push to seek and destroy the most vulnerable among us?
And what will OUR future be like? The DS Conferences will become less about new babies, there will be far fewer precious soft babies passed around, there will be fewer excited faces in the audience when Karen speaks, or when the next generation does. "The next generation"...is likely the last generation. Ciarra's generation. That breaks my heart.


4 comments:

Alice Fraggle said...

Hello again Michelle! I just left a comment on your last post and I couldn't resist throwing another 2 cents in!
I must admit that I would be scared if I found out that my child had DS, but after reading a bunch of blogs of Moms whose children have DS I admit that my fears were unfounded. I can see both sides of the argument, and never being in the place where others have been receiving that news, I think I can safely say that I no longer see DS as something to be concerned about (for the child not myself). These children are the same as any other child and should be treated as such.
I hope you don't mind a total stranger leaving 2 comments in the span of a few minutes, but I thought that I would share my thoughts with you.
I hope that blogs like yours will open the eyes of any parent who thinks of aborting a child with DS. It's murder, and unfair to think that you know exactly what difficulties you may face. Keep up the good work with sharing all the wonderful things that Ciarra does. I'm inspired by her heart and her spirit.
Have a wonderful night!

Wendy said...

MICHELLE ARE YOU GOING TO THE CONFERENCE???????

I HOPE SO!!!!

I AM!!!!!!


WENDY

Wendy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wendy said...

I got a little excited before I read you entire post.

This situation saddens me so much. One of the biggest reason I started a support group in my area was due to my hospital experience when I had Carley. I wanted to make sure that the next new parents got a little joy during the time of diagnosis and adjustment. The year before this testing started I visited between 10-13 new babies and families in the hospital!! Since the testing only ONE!!!! :-(

I wish people could understand the joy, the love, the pride and how their lives are changed but blessed in so many ways!!

I often chuckle because when we left the hospital we left with gloom and doom thoughts due to the medical field..... One day when our Carley was a little over one My husband looked at me and said, "Did you ever think that our lifes would be this normal!"

Wendy