Shattering the Human Mosaic: Down Syndrome Abortions in the Modern Era

In the United States, 80 to 90 percent of infants prenatally diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted, according to Dr. Brian Skotko of Children’s Hospital Boston. Statistics are similar in England.

Steve Wagner, bio-ethics speaker for the Christian apologetics group Stand to Reason, said: “Is this the killing of a group of people simply because they're in the way and they can't defend themselves? That seems clearly what's happening with Down Syndrome in [this] country.”
During the first 20 years of legalized abortions following Roe vs. Wade in 1973, the percentage of live-born Down Syndrome infants dropped dramatically, according to a 1998 study by Harvard Medical School.

“The longer abortion is legal in this country, the more that people come to believe what the government is teaching them,” Wagner said, “that the unborn is not a human being with the same basic rights – rights to life and liberty – that you and I share.”

Dr. Skotko cited the book, “Drawing the Lines: Notes for Policymakers,” which documents a large anonymous survey in which 23 percent of physicians admitted to either over-emphasizing the negative information concerning Down Syndrome, or to actively urging mothers to terminate.

Lolita Hanks, board member of Colorado Right to Life, said, “There is a place for testing, but to specifically look for genetic defects, with the premise of, ‘You should get rid of this kid,’ isn’t that a little eugenics-sounding?”

According to Children’s Hospital Boston, about one in every 733 children in the United States is born with Down Syndrome: a total of 5,000 in a year. Of those, 12.5 percent, or 625, are diagnosed prenatally.

In the majority of cases, Down Syndrome is caused by having three chromosomes in the 21st position instead of the usual two. Down Syndrome causes varying degrees of mental and physical handicaps, including the physical characteristics of small body, mouth and ear size, and an upward slant to the eyes.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans approve of aborting Down Syndrome fetuses, according to a Gallup poll referenced in Wagner’s book, “Common Ground Without Compromise.”

The number of Down Syndrome abortions appears higher than the number of people who approve of them. Dr. Skotko said that the high termination rates apply only to infants diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Only a small portion of women undergo definitive testing because the two leading procedures have a one percent chance of causing a miscarriage, he said.

New, non-invasive tests, however, will likely increase the number of diagnoses that will take place.

In 2009, the biotech company Sequenom plans to unveil a blood test that the company claims will offer a definitive diagnosis of Down Syndrome for a little over 90 percent of mothers, a number rivaling current more dangerous methods.

“Of course, that means that the rate of abortions for Down Syndrome babies will rise,” Julie Johnson, former consultant for the crisis pregnancy center network Care Net, said.
“I think that couples should have a choice as to whether they wish to raise a child with Down Syndrome or not,” Dr. Peter Singer, Princeton ethicist, said. “[If] the majority of them choose not to, I think that's reasonable.

“They'll probably have another child who won’t have Down Syndrome, and that child’s life will be, perhaps in their view, better than the life of a child with Down Syndrome,” he said.

“Parents’ wishes about their children are very important to their life. I think it would be wrong to deprive them of that choice,” Dr. Singer said.

Wagner, however, said human nature is the basis of human rights.

“Someone with Down Syndrome is just a human being with a different number of chromosomes in the 21st position,” Wagner said. “We should focus on the image of God in people, and that should direct how we treat them.”

Mrs. Vickie Hughes, the mother of a Down Syndrome child named Rachel, said she wishes those considering terminating their Down’s pregnancy would take the time to meet her daughter. “I think if they spent one day in our house with Rachel, they would make a totally different decision,” she said.

As the result of a new law, parents will have more opportunities to meet such families with Down Syndrome children. On Oct. 8, President Bush signed the “Prenatally and Post-Natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act.”

The law will establish a grant program to ensure that families whose children receive diagnoses for conditions such as Down syndrome will be offered accurate information about the nature of the condition and be connected with support services.

“Down Syndrome children, at least the ones I've known, are very active, they're very innocent and they're very loving,” Wagner said. “I think that’s a part of the human community, a part of the human mosaic that, if we lose it, we miss learning something about what it means to be human.”