Parents who pressured to abort their babies based on prenatal testing

Prenatal testing is increasingly used to apply pressure on parents to either discontinue the baby or die after birth, but babies diagnosed with some genetic abnormalities may be more appropriate Treatment can live for years or decades.

Prenatal testing includes non-invasive DNA testing and ultrasound testing. Currently, these tests check for Down syndrome, trisomy 13, and trisomy 21, known as trisomy 18. Conclusion that abortion is the best option.

The problem is that “diagnosing unborn infants with fatal abnormalities is difficult because there is no universally accepted definition of fatal or fatal fetal abnormalities,” University of North Carolina Dr. Martin McCaffrey, a professor of pediatrics at pediatrics, writes in ethics and hygiene. (Embodied in the original.)

“Conditions that were once described as fatal explain what could be compatible with months, years, or decades of survival as a result of not providing supportive care in general. I've started doing it,” he explained. 40-60% of infants with trisomy 13 and 18 who are properly treated survived the first year, many of whom live even longer. Of course, their lives are not without challenges, but to borrow phrases from Thomas Hobbes, there is little guaranteed to be “nasty, cruel, short.”

Negative neonatologist

But that doesn't mean how many doctors see it. In a 2016 survey, about half of neonatologists and obstetricians realised that trisomy 18 was not an automatic death sentence, but 16% of neonatologists and 8% of obstetricians had a trisomy 18. I agreed that my child could lead a “meaning” life.

Naturally, doctors tend to provide the most Grimmy prognosis to parents of babies diagnosed with trisomy in the uterus. McCaffrey summarized the findings of the 2014 American Journal of Medical Genetics Study.

Parents with prenatal trisomy diagnosis said, “Children are incompatible with life (87%), if the child survives, living a life of suffering (57%) (50%) (50%), meaningless life Living (50%), ruining marriage (23%) or ruining family (23%).'' Parents also said that not only did they offer abortion, but 61% would abort. He reports that he felt “pressure.”

Aside from abortion, parents are frequently presented with what appears to be other viable options: perinatal hospice. This is what McCaffrey points out and creates

Self-fulfilling prophecy. If a doctor says the condition is fatal, it can be fatal. Prenatal diagnosis is fatal and when parents are counselled that they do not give hope for a supportive medical intervention, they must choose between abortion and perinatal hospice. Live production following only hospice care means rapid death inevitable. …The decision not to provide supportive care to babies diagnosed with trisomy 13 and 18 perpetuates the mistaken belief that these are fatal disorders. Lethality produces lethality.

Positive parents

Strangely, doctors tend to have negative views of children with trisomy, but parents who actually have children with one of these disorders are 187 people whose trisomy children have died Parental research shows that he is much more optimistic. Citing family experiences, McCaffrey said 89% of these parents had a positive view of their children's lives, while 98% said their children enriched their lives. 68% reported that the child had a positive effect on parental relationships, and 83% argued that another child was born or fully tested, found to have trisomy in the uterus. I did.

Testing can prevent parents from being pressured to stop or kill a newborn. After all, if a baby is found to have a disability after birth, he is evaluated and treated as if he has a chance to survive, and time to decide what behavior the parents will pursue. Give it. If he is diagnosed in the uterus, his short-term death is treated as a natural conclusion.

Furthermore, prenatal testing is not evidence of a slam dunk of fetal abnormalities that medical professionals will trust parents. In 2022, the New York Times reported that prenatal testing for chromosomal diseases is so unreliable that some of them have a false positive rate of 60-90%.

Pro Life Prescription

Shane of Colson Center by taking test results as gospels and extrapolating from them that the child will lead a very short life, or that it is painful and meaningless if he lives a long life. Morris observed.

Too many healthcare providers function like self-appointed eugenicists, dictating to their parents that they are worthy of most lives and not. This perpetuates misinformation around chromosomes and other children with disabilities.

Instead of making a doctor's value judgment based on incomplete information, McCaffrey “recommended that doctors fulfill their obligation to provide informed consent to their parents.” In other words, they know what they know. They have to be honest about what they don't know, and make parents aware of all the options, not just those who involved the death of the baby.

McCaffrey said, “We don't get carried away with the best that we respect the dignity of these infants, pursue the rational possibilities of life, and decide that we are not worth living, but rather the best way to do this is to live our lives. He argued that pursuing reasonable possibilities is extremely important.