Would you abort a disabled child?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/abort-down-syndrome-child-society-shares-blame

Its a very hard decision indeed not because a parent would not love a disabled child. What concerns most is whatever happens to the parents who would go on to take care of their children, who would love them as they do. Certainly, you can imagine if a disabled child loses their parents, they would feel lonely, lost and unloved. This is what I would truly fear in case I will leave this earth and leave my child..... Who would adopt them...

We are the parents of a teenager with Down syndrome. Many times when I see the smile on her face, hear her laugh, rejoice at her spelling successes & school awards, see her dance and hear her sing, I think again about what a mistake it would have been to have followed the doctor's advice who suggested to us when her condition was suspected prenatally to not let her be born.


Sure it is not easy, but raising any child has challenges. I agree absolutely that our focus needs to be on reducing the discrimination in schools and government policy against people with disabilities and on improving the services and support available to people with disabilities. These need to include support for group homes and other support for independent living so that our grown children will be able to continue to enjoy life after we are gone. Things are much better now for people with disabilities than they were 25 or 50 years ago and let us keep up the pressure to improve further. Much more information is also available readily through the internet now even compared with a decade or so ago when our child was born.

My view is that this could be a blessing in disguise. That is assuming that one also has a good job with good financial support. I would perhaps go as far as to say that poor people should not have disabled children......I am open to discussion, and hope there is no flaming here as I dont have an absolute view as such and welcome the opportunity to hear others view.

This exact situation came up in our family and we chose to abort. We have one high functioning - but expensive and hard work autistic kid. The pregnancy was unplanned and unwanted. We already had our two kids and were happy. The thought of a third terrified us, the thought of going through even a little of what we had already been through again panicked me.


My husband was exceptional. He was supportive, listened to my ranting and tears and sat by and held my hand through the procedure. I like to think we talked about it - but really it was just me going back and forth and trying to see how I felt. The relief inside when I decided not to have the child was over whelming. Which made the decision the right one.


Would i have terminated my first pregnancy had there been a test for Autism. That I cannot tell you. Would my answer have been different if this test had shown positive on my first pregnancy, again I could not tell you what my decision would be. I am just blessed to live somewhere that my decision counts, it was the right decision for us, our family and the time.

i wish you the best whatever decision you make, only you will know what decision will be right for you and don't let any one else judge you for it.