Thank you, Andy Crouch. Though I tried, I couldn’t have said it any better myself:
The fact that this syndrome has become a reason for termination is evidence of the terrible power of culture. A culturally neutral artifact (prenatal diagnosis of congenital diseases) combined with a culturally tragic artifact (elective abortion) begins to make it plausible that parents should avoid the challenges and risks of a Down pregnancy by ending it. The decreasing number of children born with the condition begins to make it more difficult to imagine that “normal” families can absorb the stresses of raising such a child, and undermines public support for public programs that support families who have made that decision. Which, over time, makes carrying a Down Syndrome baby to term ever more inconceivable, leading to increased rates of termination, leading to decreasing plausibility . . . until one day the burden of bringing a Down Syndrome child into the world is seen as so grave that less than 10 percent of parents take the risk.
It is as if our culture is aiming to eradicate Down syndrome not by medical cure, but by social intimidation.
August 30, 2008 at 7:01 am
As a special education teacher, I find the whole thing rather heartbreaking. Is it incredibly difficult to raise a child with a disability, especially when it gets into the more severe range as Down’s and severely autistic? Absolutely. Does that make those lives meaningless? Absolutely not. For the past two years I’ve been delighted to have a girl with Down’s Syndrome in my class. She has a difficult time learning, but, as a person she is delightful to know. She is incredibly well-known throughout our large school building and everybody who knows her loves her.
August 30, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Dan, your comments in particular resonate with this part of Crouch’s article, which may be the most disturbing part of this whole thing (though the competition for most disturbing is fierce):