Oh FFS I am shaking... has there been a thread yet about Minette Marin's unbelievable column on babies with Down's syndrome?

[emkana]

words fail me

great response from India Knight

I think it's a fair enough opinion tbh.

Support is in short supply for the parents of any child with special needs, though I am not sure I agree with her when she bangs on about their lives after their parents have died. I have a cousin with special needs who leads a very independent life and has continued to do so since his parents died.

I know I would think very hard before going on to carry a downs child full term, infact (And I am guessing this will make me unpopular) I would almost certainly choose to terminate if I knew my child was at high risk of being downs (forgive me if I am getting the terminolgy wrong).

All she is saying really is that her opinion is that she wouldn't want to have a child with downs and nor do I high percentage of women faced with that choice. Doesn't mean she thinks other women should not choose differently.

ok,

i am not involved,

and i am inexperienced,

but...

'a damaged baby is a damaged family, even now'

WTF?

i would get on the the press advertising people if i was you,

that sentance has made me feel very ill

No what she's saying is that you should abort a baby with Down's because they might have a crap sex life.

And yes you are getting it wrong. "being downs"? "a downs child"? You should say a child with down's syndrome.

What a pathetic, sad, ignorant women

I like India's response

Yes, having a child with any special need is challenging but we fight as they are our children, just like we fight for our 'normal'

What would that woman do if a child or relative of hers suffers illness, accident or mental health problems that make them disabled... take them to be put down????

The woman is a twat

I know I would think very hard before going on to carry a downs child full term, infact (And I am guessing this will make me unpopular) I would almost certainly choose to terminate if I knew my child was at high risk of being downs (forgive me if I am getting the terminolgy wrong).

beanieb,

this really doesnt involve me,

but i have to say,

you are a brave woman for your honesty,

i am sure some would feel the same but never dare say it,

so well done...

That is such a depressing and ignorant article, I can't believe they published it.

Minette Marin would probably have advised me then to abort my little boy who has dwarfism. He won't fit in with society's expectations of how you should look either.

"damaged" indeed. Look at my profile and tell me he is "damaged"

Well I am 41 and pg and have refused all antental tests.

Not sure what to make of it tbh. I am however shocked at the high % of babies who are aborted beacuse they have Downs

beanie, so you would abort a child with am extra chromosone, what would you do if your child suffered a brain injury during birth? Or discover your child had ASD at 5? Or they have a car accident in their 40's? Put them on the scrap heap too?? No one is promised a 'perfect' child

The woman is commenting on a person with downs syndrome not getting a partner and concentrating on their looks, it's pathetic. She is just ignorant

beanie, I suspect that she has looked at the statistic that 91% of mothers abort, and at the outraged response to the bbc article last week, and thinks she'll get support for her illogical, badly thought out, inhumane opinions.

Oh there are just so many wrong things in that article that I dont know where to start.

India Knight's piece is cheering though.

Can't be easy for ugly people either, I'm thinking. Or fat people. Or short people. I know! Let's get 3D scans of them in utero and hoover them out if they aren't aesthetically pleasing. I mean, poor things, it's not like anyone's ever going to want to have sex with them. And what about old people?

i have to say, indias response does not make me feel any better,

her use of the word 'hoover' in this instance is 'more than' crude,

i would love any child...

no matter what (full stop)

Words fail me too. I'm amazed it went to press unchallenged by her editors. If she had said the same thing about any other minority the article would have been pulled.

India Knight has just shot up in my estimation.

LOL at India Knight's response- good on her, that's exactly what I was thinking but could never have got my point across like that!

I can't believe that women thinks it's better to deny a person life because it may be 'hard' for them. Who's life isn't hard at times?

I hope the f*ing Sunday Times has the decency to publish India's response next Sunday.

yES lOCKETS, i AM CONSTANTLY CORRECTING THAT ONE IN MY WORK AS A SALT WITH PEOPLE WITH ld.
iT IS (oops) grammatically inaccurate fro a start, aside from being offensive.

I've worked with 100s of peopel of all ages with LD and on balance, people with DS are the ones that have the fewest issues, not the most.

I know many where the DS is practically irrelevant.

Well her last few paragraphs suggest that she's a few decades out of date. But that never stops a journalist does it.

I was talking to a colleague about her grown up son with DS this week. She was saying what a good life he has. He's getting married soon. I know another person with DS doing 9 GCSE's (which is almost certainly unusual, but hey ho still outperforms many NT kids).

It's something that DH and I disagreed on quite seriously. I refused to have any invasive tests. He wanted me to have them with a view to aborting a foetus with abnormalities. He is a moral man, but I could not have done as he would have wanted me to.

Your DS is lovely Emkana.

Ha,I live in one of these "Damaged" families.DD has sn (Not DS,BUT A LD THAT REQUIRES LIFELONG CARE)wish the authour could,ve seen our "BLIGHTED" child joining in with lots of giggling tonight in a "normal" family manner.Fark off author,you are a dimwit.

DS1 - looks normal (he's on my profile) is way more disabled that anyone with DS I have yet come across. And requires (and always will) far more care. By quite a distance.

He still has a good life though (as hopefully can be seen from the photos).

i'm rather shocked by Minette Marin's affiliations. Luckily they're ex affiliations/

OMG
Emkana's little boy is an angel that second photo is gorgeous.

I loved IK's article.

I think a high persentage of women wouldn't want a child with Down's Syndrome because they DON'T really know what it would be like. I think if they had more contact/experience of DS they may choose differently (I don't have and SN child BTW).

I do know that there are many disabilities/illnesses/syndromes that are much harder to live with than DS.

I also know of people who have been told they were going to have a child with DS, chose not to abort and then had a NT child.

I also know of someone who chose to abort an unplanned pg when she found out the child had DS. She has since been depressed, not managed to get over it and has been trying, without success, for another baby.

Well I certainly don't think it's a misfortune to be born with Down's Syndrome - I'm always rather glad when one particular cashier is on the till at Boots, because she's by far the friendliest, and most efficient of the lot, I used to get the bus home from town at the same time as her quite frequently before we moved here too, she's worked there for at least as long as I've lived in this town (8yrs) . Oh - and did I mention she has Down's Syndrome? Don't see how her parents decision to keep her was a "bad choice".