"Your Duty" to Abort your Disabled child

I read this article from the Washington Post yesterday and cried. The woman who wrote the article, Patricia Bauer, writes about how all of a sudden, you just don't see children with disabilities or Down's syndrome born in middle-upper class America. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701311.html.

Bauer's own daughter has Down's, and has received a bit of flak, I take it, because she did not choose to have an abortion. Science has really provided us with more moral quandaries to trespass.

At around 16-20 weeks, pregnant women now get regularly screened with an AFP (alpha fetoprotein) test. http://ucsfhealth.org/childrens/medical_services/preg/prenatal/moreinfo/faq.htmlThis test reveals abnormalities in the blood that usually indicate genetic disorders. (For more info about genetic disorders, of which there are a whole array, read this Emory University Department of Genetics website: http://server2k.genetics.emory.edu/ask/user/view_topic.pl?topic=20&temp=3).

At this time, you still have a very small window to opt for an abortion. When my AFP test results came back abnormal, I was told that I needed a more conclusive, in-depth Ultrasound at Emory. Then I could make decisions.

The ultrasound was incredible. I was able to see the tiny passages in my daughter's heart, brain, and lungs. It was like having an anatomy book on screen. A little creepy, also, considering that the subject was a creature that was part of my flesh, and had taken a nice hold inside me.

The ultrasound was inconclusive. No abnormalities were noted, but the physicians on staff warned me that some genetic disorders are impossible to physically note. Her head and body were shaped right, but plenty of people born with genetic disorders do not have typical physical characteristics - they look like you and I.

I was urged by members of my family to have an abortion. Everyone was all freaked out already, thought that I was like Julia Roberts in "Steel Magnolias", and that I would die in childbirth.

I knew differently. We had bonded, you see, this little alien inside my tummy and I. We sang to eachother in our dreams, and whispered in the middle of the night. I knew she was perfectly "fine".

To me, "fine" was a figurative term. What is normal, anyway? How can you possibly tell me that someone with genetic "disorders" was not meant to live on this Earth, especially when they are mild syndromes? Isn't the idea that abnormalities exist a basic tenet of evolution and natural selection, ideas in which I deeply believe?

She was "fine" because she was conceived, something I did not believe could happen. Her dreams, shared with me while she was in utero, revealed a strong, healthy, and talkative child just waiting to meet me for the first time.

I pity you people who deem others "not good enough". True, it is incredibly difficult to raise a child with mental/physical problems. I've seen mothers driven crazy by such a momentous task. However, isn't this the risk we take by procreating anyway?

If you have ever seen the movie "Gattaca", you know of the dangers of selection that can occur when people decide just what is perfect. I feel we are treading on very dangerous ground, morally, if we decide to interuppt the normal natural selection process.

Abortion is a terrible thing in some ways, in others it is very necessary, while still being absolutely horrible. I know. I had one. My heart still breaks every day as I remember it. I doubt I will ever forgive myself for it, and I know that I will carry it with me into the next life.

That people should be so cold and hardened to believe that you deserve a "normal" child, in all your trappings of wealth, absolutely astounds me. You aren't suffering from a lack of education and poverty. It won't cripple you, financially or emotionally, for the rest of your life to raise the child that you were given by nature. You also are not in such an extreme situation that you will be so burdened by childbirth that you will eventually become a destructive, abusive parent. You have the resources to handle this, and with resources come the comfort of knowing that you have that foundation to walk upon. Break out your Blue Cross/Blue Shield card and go to town, you money-laden scum of the earth.

Worse, you are suffering from elitism, pride, and massive egos. What made you so fuc&ing special? Are you so perfect? Why would you possibly think that you are a divine enough being to decide what perfection is?

Christians believe in judgment day. I don't. I believe that your reincarnations will naturally keep bringing up all the bad shit. You screw someone royally in this life, they may just come back in the next, when you are a dog, and beat you day in and day out.

I wonder what happens to those who decide they are God. How does nature address such absurd over-confidence?