Steve Palmer's blog about his son Stanley - who has Down's Syndrome - & the extended family.

Tuesday 10 January 2006

A testing time

This was originally on the BBC Ouch! Website

On Saturday, a heavily pregnant woman gave Stan a really nice smile. This can be rare. I’ve noticed that some pregnant women can be a bit overwhelmed at the site of a boy with Down’s Syndrome. After all, they’re likely to have had some of the tests: “Oh my God, I do hope I don’t have one of THOSE!” But I don’t have negative feelings to anyone who stares and inwardly screams: Because it’s admission time. I saw a young child with DS about three months before Stan was born and had EXACTLY THE SAME THOUGHT. During pre-natal testing, the medical profession are far more interested in playing down the achievements that people with DS can make, and that needs to be challenged. The big change that is likely to come along is non-invasive success in determining whether a child has Down’s Syndrome. Look at this article http://www.technologyreview.com//wtr_16028,1,p1.htmlThere is a risk of miscarriage if a needle is placed inside the womb, and so, better tests that don’t involve this, are likely to become more popular. It would be nice if this site provided a link to pages that show how it isn’t necessarily a disaster to have a child with the extra chromosome. Who would dare say that this man shouldn’t have been born?http://www.sujeet.web.com/ By the way, the techie website was mentioned on a UK e mail list that Down’s parents use. One interesting comment: “It's odd, isn't it, the idea that our children may be endangered species?”

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