July 8, 2010

By Dave Andrusko

We all are aware of the law of unintended consequences, effects that transpire that were neither anticipated nor intended by the one who initiated the behavior. What do you call a situation where one of the consequences may be unintended but is utterly predictable and is tacitly accepted as the cost of doing business, so to speak?

Some members of KIDS gathered at the NRLC office before heading out to the March for Life.

Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), there is a story about a test being developed by researchers in the Netherlands that within a few years will provide a non-invasive blood test to detect Down syndrome in unborn babies. If successful, the kit would purportedly quickly and cheaply pinpoint whether the baby carries the disorder. A spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, "considers a non-invasive test for detecting Down syndrome the 'holy grail,'" according to the Daily Telegraph.

The initial publicity of this new test will spur copycat research not only to find "better" ways of detecting not only Down syndrome but probably also other genetic diseases as well.

On the one hand, the current tests employed-- amniocentesis, which removes amniotic fluid, and chronic villus sampling, which tests a piece of the placenta--carry a risk of miscarriage. Taking a sample of the mother's blood would not directly threaten the baby's life.

On the other hand, best estimates are that when parents are convinced their baby may have Down syndrome, around 90% will abort.

Whether the 90% figure goes up can not be known, although you could make an educated guess. But the inhibition, however small, that prevents women from having prenatal testing because of the possibility of a miscarriage, would be gone.

I asked Eileen Haupt, co-founder of Keep Infants with Down Syndrome (KIDS), for her comment on the new research from The Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Eileen was drawn into the Movement 11 years ago when her daughter, Sadie, was born with Down syndrome.

"I am very concerned that this test will significantly increase the number of babies with Down syndrome being aborted," she said. "This new test, coupled with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) 2007 guidelines recommending that all pregnant mothers (not just those over 35) be offered testing, will no doubt result in many more babies with Down syndrome being detected. Because they will be detected much earlier in the pregnancy when abortion is less 'complicated,' more mothers will undoubtedly choose abortion."

There is one thing that prenatal testing cannot tell you, Haupt wrote me, "and that is the joy your special child will bring. Mothers who choose to abort will live with the sadness of the abortion for the rest of their lives. Mothers who choose life will find that their child with Down syndrome will transform their sadness into joy."

Please send all of your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are now following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three