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Today's News & Views
October 14, 2005
Finding Treasures in Hidden Places
About an hour before I began composing TN&V for today, I finished a
lengthy exchange of emails with a number of friends on a variety of
topics. One subject close to all our hearts was the funeral mass I
attended last Saturday for Prof. John Dolan, a great pro-lifer and a
wonderful human being.
John was a passionate defender of the powerless. He was as gentle as he
was tall, as determined as he was faithful. The unborn, babies born
with disabilities, and the medically dependent elderly have lost a true
champion. (See my earlier, "John Dolan: RIP" at
http://www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/September05/nv091605.html)
On the subject of the medically vulnerable, another topic of our email
exchange was the horrific "Law and Order" program that aired this week.
I have only heard about the program--albeit from a number of sources,
including a couple of my e-mail correspondents--but some friends are
sending me a tape of the show. I hope to write about the program
Monday.
Suffice it to say here the story line was "adapted" (or, as they like
to say, "ripped from the headlines") from the struggle over Terri
Schindler-Schiavo. Only in the facsimile "Law and Order" program, the
character who parallels Terri's brother is not a loving, caring, gentle
soul, but a deranged whack job who kills Terri's estranged husband.
My contribution, fortunately, was more upbeat. I sent around an article
I found yesterday on the ABCNews.com website. We've written about the
subject of this essay before, but the more the merrier--especially when
it's covered in the "mainstream press."
I loved the part of the headline that did not reduce the unborn to
abstractions: "Can Doctors Influence Whether Moms Keep Their Unborn
Children?" The subhead was distressing but, alas, all too true:
"Mothers: Doctors Too Negative When Diagnosing Down Syndrome."
[The story can be read in its entirety at
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=1207054&page=1]
Let me just say a couple of words, even if they are hardly breaking
news. There can not be many more vulnerable situations for a couple
(let alone a woman facing this on her own) than to be told doctors
suspect a "problem."
My wife and I have four children. That doesn't make me an expert, but
it does help me to understand how any of us can become like putty in
the doctor's hands at a moment like this.
One couple is the focus of this story. More than the diagnosis of Down
syndrome was the way they told Beth Allard the news.
"They called me at work to tell me, and then said, 'You have two weeks
to decide if you're going to keep this child. Either way, it's an awful
thing,'" Allard told ABCNews.com
Her doctor gave her no resources or further information, insisting that
her child "wouldn't be able to read, write or live any sort of
productive life." In a tremendous understatement, Mrs. Allard added,
"They were very negative throughout the whole thing." Not surprisingly,
"I cried every day. I was so scared."
The larger point of the story is that the Allards experience is not
unusual. Brian Skotko, a joint-degree student at Harvard Medical School
and Harvard's John. F. Kennedy School of Government published an
article based on an 11-page survey that he mailed to nearly 3,000
members of five Down syndrome parent organizations. He received 1,250
responses.
"My prenatal study says that mothers feel they are getting an
inaccurate picture of Down syndrome, often without the most current
information and balanced description of the possibilities and
realities," Skotko told ABCNews.com. "This, of course, is coming at a
critical time when many mothers are deciding whether or not to continue
with their pregnancies."
Indeed, the only conclusion that can be drawn is (as the story puts it)
"physicians are overwhelmingly negative when diagnosing fetuses and
newborns with Down syndrome, often advising the mother to discontinue
the pregnancy or to put the child up for adoption."
Skotko's inspiration is his 24-year-old sister, Kristin, who has Down
syndrome. He describes his sister as "one of my life coaches." What has
Kristin taught her brother?
"[T]o persevere when life challenges, to smile when others frown, to
give while others take," he says." She has taught me to find treasures
in hidden places and to understand that happiness really nestles
within." Kristin lives with their parents outside of Cleveland and
works three part-time jobs.
"Physicians often paint a limited picture of today's opportunities for
people with Down syndrome, and new parents, with no introduction to
Down syndrome, have nothing else to believe," Skotko said. "It is not
until they meet other families and receive accurate information that
they realize their physicians' words are often limiting."
As I say you can read the entire story at
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=1207054&page=1.
If you get a
chance, I promise it will be worth your while.
Have a great weekend.
Please send any comments to me at
dandrusko@nrlc.org
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