DNA testing for autism opens doors to selective abortions

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I understand that and there's absolutely no reason to kill anything without cause. I used to kill spiders because I hate them. Now I only kill them if they're a danger... eg: I'll let a huntsman live but not a funnel web.

The problem is that this boy's condition has almost ended his family's life. They've been "emotionally abused" and "economically drained" by their circumstances and are really quite a dysfunctional family now. They carry a lot of pain and regret.



Being an outsider, I can't say for sure but they've always said it was autism and have never mentioned anything else.

Amnio tests for more things than just DS. There are other trisomies that simply are not compatible (physically) with life, where the infant dies a few days after birth or slowly over the course of its first year. So you would force a woman to carry a child to term, so that she can watch him die slowly?

Of these fetuses (like trisomy 18 ), a large number will die in utero in the 2nd or 3rd trimester. Based on that alone a mother should be allowed the choice to end the pregnancy. You might think people underestimate conception, but I think you underestimate the anguish of being pregnant with a child who well could die within you at any moment, or who, upon birth, will die within a year. That should not be forced on anyone.

A relative of mine was told that she was probably carrying a child with down's syndrome and they gave her the option of abortion. She said, "no" and her baby did not have down's syndrome at all. If he did, she still wanted to have that child.

When I had my son, I refused to have the down's syndrome test done out of general principle.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine. They told him his son was probably going to have all kinds of problems and he turned out completely normal. I think their philosophy is that it's better to throw out a bunch of healthy babies than allow a few "bad" ones to be born. I had a 14yo friend with Down Syndrome. He looked and acted like a perfectly normal 7 year old. I'd be happy having a Down Syndrome child.

Last edited by zendell on 14 Jan 2008, 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Agreed.

Don't know whether it was Down's or severe autism, but I knew of someone in high school that was affected. But he knew how to be normal. He was so well-behaved, in comparison to most NT's...

How early in the fetus's development can genetic anomalies be detected?

Chorionic Villus Sampling can be done between 10-12 weeks with a result wait time of 10+ days. Amnio is done about 16-20 weeks but I think it can be done later as well. The result wait time is 2-4 weeks for an amnio. So a woman who chooses to abort based on genetic testing is facing a 2nd trimester abortion. Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks in most states (in the US).

On an ironic note, the genetics counselor who spoke to me seemed a bit aspie!