These tests are not always accurate. About 1 out of 20 women who terminate the pregnancy will be aborting a healthy normal child. And unfortunately Down syndrome abortions are not performed until later in the pregnancy, since the screenings are not so accurate early on. If you watch that video, they actually bring the fetus to the woman after the procedure so she can hold it. Part of the grieving process to give her closure.
Here's a graph showing the false positive rates of a typical Down Syndrome screening test for different diagnostic cut-off criteria: source of the graph: Hyperglycosylated Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (Invasive Trophoblast Antigen) Immunoassay: A New Basis for Gestational Down Syndrome Screening The white dots represent tests done on women in the early stage of pregnancy, while the black dots represent tests on women in a later stage of pregnancy. As you can see there are trade-offs here. If you want to lower the threshold criteria to reduce the chance of a false positive, the detection rate is reduced. If you want to wait later into the pregnancy the test will get more accurate. But then again they usually prefer to avoid abortions having to be done at later stages of pregnancy (because the fetus has been developing during that time). Unfortunately there is chance you could wait a month for the test to get more accurate and still end up mistakenly aborting a normal fetus. Then there's yet another test they can do, if the woman really wants to make sure. It's called Amniocentesis, where they stick a long needle into the woman's abdomen to extract a fluid sample. Unfortunately that test carries a 6 out of 1000 risk of causing a miscarriage—obviously not something the woman wants to do if the baby is normal. So this is yet another trade-off.
The same thing is happening in the USA. The number of people with Downs is dropping drastically. When I was a kid, there were multiple Downs kids in school with me. Now? You rarely see a Downs kid. That's because most women who detect a Downs pregnancy choose abortion. Conservatives, liberals, everyone. American conservatives don't like to talk about that, being how they're choosing abortion as well.
As usual I read your posts and think, "ya, so what?" It's ALL still the pregnant woman's decision and no one else's.....no matter what is wrong or not wrong with the fetus she still has every right to abort it... Why is that so impossible for you to understand..??
For those of you who think all people with down syndrome are on the mental level of a vegetable, you might watch this video clip. The family is sitting down at the table having a conversation and one of their sons has down syndrome.
This has nothing to do with women's right to have an abortion. To those of you who think having a Down's child is cheap and easy HAVE ONE YOURSELF!!!!!!
Some live a productive life, while others require 24-hour professional care. I really admire those who take on the responsibility. How many are you willing to raise?
I doubt you'll be back but have you adopted one yet??? Paid for the medical care of one for the first years of it's life? Have you at least arranged to care for one while their stressed overworked caregiver gets a rest?? What have YOU DONE FOR THEM....
The average person with down syndrome lives to age 60 today. There's been a lot of medical advancements since the 80s. Before it was only age 25. The reason the average was so short is that 40% of them are born with congenital heart defects.
The people that defend a woman having an abortion for no other reason than the fetus having Down Syndrome are no different than woman having abortions because the fetus is a girl. Is it legal, yes, does it make that person an ******* to the tenth degree you absolutely bet it does. There is a huge difference between having an abortion because you don't want ANY child versus having an abortion because you don't like the hand that the genetic lottery dealt you. Once again as has been shown multiple times now people with Down's are NOT slobbering bags of drool. They are capable of leading normal lives and often even living independently. Before some idiot says "but they are mentally challenged and incapable of taking care of themselves" have you ever lived in a large city specifically in or around the inner city. I have when I went to UWM. Lots of "normal" people there completely incapable of taking care of themselves. Everyone has those relatives or friends in their 30s still living with their parents because they sit around and do nothing all day long. The world is full of normal people who don't achieve anything of note and are not self sufficient and end up leeching other people as well. The difference is that they get a chance when posters on this forum won't even give that same chance to someone with Down's. They just want them dead. It may be legal but it is disgusting and obnoxious and it should be reviled just like eugenics is. We are not far from people deciding they want their kids to only have blue eyes and blond hair. Sadly at the end up the day Hitler still won and now we march to the drum of racial and genetic purity again.
My ****ing niece had level 4 brain bleeding and nearly died and it was obnoxiously expensive for her care costing hundres of thousands of dollars when all was said and done. You want her dead as well? I volunteered for Jesus Cares which helped out people with disabilities. People that smile and laugh and enjoy life even the ones that can't enjoy it to its fullest have fun. They ranged from near comatose from accidents to paraplegics and so on. All of them required care and yet all of them enjoyed their time with them and I enjoyed my time with them. At first I felt like it was a chore but as I did it longer I am thankful that they made me volunteer for that group. Lots of life lessons learned which clearly you never did since you just want to throw everyone with any disability that has a cost to it over the cliff.
Thank you for making my point A large proportion have congenital heart defects. I am not advocating killing Downs Syndrome Children but it has to be a personal choice as to whether or not to care for that child for the rest of your life. Some can do that some cannot
I have said it before, IMO, abortions after there is brain activity is murder. Before brain activity (about 10-11 weeks) - fine. Unfortunate, but fine (legally).
I'm surprised no one seems to be concerned about these normal fetuses that get aborted because the woman thought it had Down Syndrome. Doctors told her it looked like the baby had abnormalities and to abort, turned out baby was completely normal On the other side of the coin: Pregnant woman screened for Down Syndrome told the test was negative and that she had a greater chance of winning the lottery than giving birth to a Down Syndrome baby. Guess what, she won that lottery. "How could this happen to me?!?"
A) you are predicating that opinion on a study that was over 19 years old - and I have to ask - is the technology still having that error rate??
This link says that a "positive" result in a screening test means that there is a 98.6% chance the fetus has Down Syndrome. At that point the woman can go on to have a diagnostic test called as Amniocentesis, which is "nearly 100% accurate" but carries "up to a 1% risk of causing a spontaneous termination (miscarriage)". http://www.ndss.org/resources/understanding-a-diagnosis-of-down-syndrome/ If we do a quick mathematical calculation, that would mean that out of 100,000 women who are screened, 14 are going to suffer a miscarriage as an unintended result of the diagnostic test when their baby did not actually have Down Syndrome.
And It is still the woman's choice wether or not to proceed BTW - what do you propose to do about any of this?
This link says that with the latest DNA testing available, there is a 0.06% false positive rate. (That's 6 out of 10,000) It also says that "one of their advantages is that if women test negative, they can avoid having an invasive diagnostic test, which can cause miscarriages in roughly 1 out of 600 women." But this newer test is not yet regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...erts-warn-of-exceptions-idUSKBN0MT00P20150402
Have you adopted one yet??? Paid for the medical care of one for the first years of it's life? Have you at least arranged to care for one while their stressed overworked caregiver gets a rest?? What have YOU DONE FOR THEM....??????????? And the CHOICE is still the woman's........what don't you get about women do NOT need YOUR approval to get an abortion....
Exactly. My late bestie had a child with DS. He had a congenital heart defect and did not see his 5th birthday. My bestie was pro choice.
