In light of broader screening, parents aim to share positive stories.....

      Thils article was acutally buried within the pages of my local newspaper and I almost missed it. It will pull at the heart strings and force potential parents to really think their decisions through before reacting. This story begins with a little girl, Sarah, who is wise beyond her young years.

     "Sarah Itoh, self-described as "almost eleven and a half" betrayed no trace of nervousness as she told a roomful of genetic counselors and obstetricians about herself one recent afternoon.
      She likes to read, she said. Math used to be hard, but it is getting easier. She plays clarinet in her school band. She is a junior girl scout and an aunt and she likes to organize, so her room is very clean. Last year, she won three medals in the Special Olympics."
     "I am so lucky I get to do so many things," she concluded. "I just want you to know, even though I have Down syndrome, it is OK."
     "Sarah's appearance at Henry Ford Hospital here is part of an unusual campaign, being under-taken by parents of children with Down syndrome who worry about their children's future in the face of broader prenatal testing that could sharply reduce the number of those born with the genetic condition."
     "Until this year, only pregnant women thirty five and older were routinely tested to see if their fetuses had the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome. As a result, may couples were given the diagnosis only at birth. But under a new recommendation from the American College of Obsttricians and Gynecologists, doctors have begun to offer a new, safer screening procedure to all pregnant women, regardless of age."
     "About ninety percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion."
      You know, I can, in all sincerity understand how parents, mostly mothers would chose the option to abort the baby if it was found to have Down Syndrome. Yet, it makes me wonder too, was the choice made out of selfish reasons or from what the future would be for the child?
      Do we really have a right to play "God" or should we just accept with open arms whatever fate has dealt us? These certainly are not easy decisions to have to make either.
    "Convinced that more couples would choose to continue their pregnancies if they better appreciated what it meant to raise a child with Down syndrome, a growing  group of parents is seeking to insert a positive perspective into a decision often dominated by daunting medical statistics and doctors who feel obligated to describe the difficulties of life with a disabled child."
     What would happen if we found that the way to irradicate all disabilities was to keep aborting babies until we got the perfect model we were looking for? How many more babies would be given the death sentence when their only crime was in attempting to be born and live? Who are we to be playing "God" and choosing who will live and who will not?
    In the begining of this article, it opened up with a beautiful little girl speaking in behalf of all who are born with Down syndrome. Think what her parents would be missing if they aborted her just because she was not the perfect human model? The love that would never had been shared? We must all ask ourselves how far do we want technology and science to go?
    What of all the other "defects" we humans are born with? Are we going to test and abort all babies for any defect in the future? Who will determine what a defect is? Is it that we are afraid to face what we have created? Or have we become so selfish that we forgot how to give to another human being?
    "The richness of their children's lives, parent advocates say, is poorly understood. Early medical intervention and new expertise in infant heart surgery stave off many health problems. Legally mandated inclusion in public schools has created opportunities for friendship and fostered broader social awareness."
      Perhaps the time is now for us all to re-evaluate our priorities. Ask yourself, if my decisions will affect my child, how much would I be willing to sacrifice?  Am I so shallow that I would keep trying until I delivered a perfectly healthy baby or would I gladly accept and love what God has chosen for me?