Thoughts on A World Without Down ’s Syndrome?

We watched the documentary prenatal screening and the reduction in people being born with Down Syndrome presented by Sally Phillips.It's on BBC iplayerhere and below is a short clip.The best article on this that I have read is byFrancis Ryan in the Guardian.I have however some points that I want to make about the programme. I tweeted these this morning and am bringing those thoughts together now.First principle is that individual women must have full bodily autonomy. Nothing in #worldwithoutdowns negates the need to legalise safe, free abortion in Ireland/elsewhere. It is still essential that Irish people #repealthe8th and that women in the north are also afforded rights over their own bodies.It's good that a programme like A World Without Down ’s Syndrome? was created and screened. It's right to raise these questions and challenge assumptions about the value of disabled lives.Sally Phillips was open about her bias as mother of a child with DS. The scientists however were at pains to dissociate their work from any consideration of ethics. Lyn Chitty who developed non-invasive prenatal test was out of line when she said to Sally "Well your son is likely to outlive you," as though that was a bad thing. Children tend to outlive parents, that's a good thing. I want my 3 kids to live at least as long after my death as I lived before their births. And the Californian dude who sequenced his unborn son's DNA said, science just tells you what you can do. Morality is something e...
Source: The Voyage - Category: Child Development Source Type: blogs