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An influencer couple announced that they aborted their pregnancy because the fetus had Down syndrome. This upset a lot of people including some fine congressmen.
However, it's actually very common. Screening for genetic disorders is generally performed between 10 and 20 weeks, giving plenty of time for a reasonably early choice. "As a result of these elective terminations in the U.S., there was a 37% reduction in the numbers of babies with Down syndrome born in 2018. This means that in recent years there were 37% fewer babies with Down syndrome than could have been born". In Iceland, almost all such diagnosed pregnancies are aborted after testing.
People with Down syndrome are clearly generally capable of living "happy" lives. They have the equivalent intelligence of an 8 to 9 year old. Most 8 to 9 year olds seem happy enough to me, and it would not be a horrible curse to live decades in such a condition. Perhaps we might ask if such a life is fulfilling, but a young child can't comprehend what that means; as well ask your dog if he's fulfilled by sniffing butts and digging holes.
For the caretakers of course, life may not be so rosy. Taking care of a small child indefinitely, knowing all of the joys and sorrows of adulthood that they will never experience, does not sound fulfilling, to say nothing of the physical and monetary toll. It's therefore unsurprising that most parents choose not to condemn themselves to such a future.
God in His infinite wisdom creates babies with far worse afflictions. Most people would agree that it is ethical, perhaps mandatory, to abort nonviable children who will live only hours in agonizing pain after birth. Down syndrome, as a patently survivable condition, lies on the edge of this boundary.
For whatever reason, my gut feeling of my friends is that the ones who are most vocal about being pro-abortion are also the most vocal about being anti-screening. It seems like "abortions are no problem, unless you're doing so because the future child would have a disability". I guess it's reconcilable as being against dehumanizing people with disabilities?
Yeah there were a bunch of people on twitter pushing the 'Abortion for any reason is fine, unless it's disability at which point you are committing a hecking eugenics' which creates this funny moral situation where you can supposedly abort out of mere potential inconvenience but also the like maximally inconvenient child cannot be aborted.
A similar phenomenon occurs when people who are very pro-abortion for women’s Fun and Freedom reasons get big mad at those who are pro-abortion for reasons relating to the ethnic and socioeconomic composition of abortion-getters.
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I can understand where theyre coming from, but it almost makes it into some kind of insane game show: "Okay, you're here for the screening? I'll just need you to sign here to acknowledge that at any point prior to seeing the results, you can abort no problems/no judgement, but once you see the results, if they have any negstive attributes, any abortion becomes morally unjustifiable - although if the screening says they'll be perfect. You can still abort at will. So keep the folder sealed until you're 100% sure you either want the child or are willing to be branded a Nazi to get rid of it!"
For an IVF situation, one could set-up a Monty Hall-type problem. A couple has ten files in front of them (or n files for however many they fertilized), each corresponding to screening results of the embryo they’ll have to implant.
The couple picks a file, say #1. Their doctor opens up a different file, it’s a Downie. Does the couple decide to stay with #1 or choose a different file?
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