I’ve just watched Sally Philips’ documentary and found myself moved.
The gist of the piece was to inform us that a new foetal test is being reported that is non invasive and which is said to be almost 100% accurate.
The upshot of this is that more women, we are told, will choose to terminate if they are told their child has DS.
As the mother of a kid with DS Sally finds this devastating and so is probably not the best choice as presenter.
You could see that, understandably, she was moved to tears every time mention of termination was made.
Initially her argument seemed lopsided but eventually the experts did weigh in and provide some even handedness.
More needs to be covered in the media about the life quality and achievements of people with this syndrome so that better decisions can be made by each woman faced with a positive test.
There is no right and wrong for me. Science is what it is. It grinds on, developing and progressing.
It has no conscience or ethic. That is for us.
We were told early on in Gill’s pregnancy that there were “soft markers” to indicate that Ashley had problems.
Mention of Edward’s was made (don’t goo.gle it if you want to sleep tonight, I did) and the choice of termination.
When this was shown not to be the case we chose to plough on into the unknown.
Ashley was born and seemed fine then spent 6 weeks in Special Care as his blood sugar and oxygen dropped.
Now he is our joy. He has developmental delay but is progressing. He’s a whizz on computers, hugely sociable, requires constant revision to his medication, has physio, MRI’s, blood tests and will need constant supervision fir the rest of his life.
He changed our lives and I am a stronger and more mature man because of him.
Gill and I work better together than we ever did before he came along and our love for each other is strong.
The elephant in the room is the question “would we have terminated had we known?”
Well, if we had only been told the negatives, then probably yes.
Medicos dwell on the downside.
But if I’d seen videos of Ashley dancing, goofing around with his sisters, being the caring kid that he is now 11 years later, then no.
It’s about Informed Choice and the Individual which you cannot dictate.
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