Toddler with Rett Syndrome drowns after parents ask for her to be euthanized

This story breaks my heart.  I spent many years sequencing the DNA of little girls looking for the mutations that cause Rett Syndrome.  A toddler with Rett Syndrome has drowned under suspicious circumstances after her parents asked if she could be euthanized.  From Australia's Herald Sun:

A COUPLE was worried their disabled toddler was interfering with their "idyllic" lifestyle and investigated the possibility of euthanasing her shortly before the girl drowned in a backyard pool, a court was told yesterday.

An inquest at Glebe Coroner's Court is investigating whether the two-year-old's drowning in a pool at her Northern Beaches home was the result of a "deliberate act" or a tragic accident.

The inquest heard the girl's parents, who cannot be named, described themselves to social workers as "happy and beautiful people" living an "idyllic" lifestyle. But they were also so distressed by their daughter's disability - a neuro-developmental condition called Rett syndrome - they asked health specialists whether euthanasia was "legally possible".

As they explored the possibility of foster care arrangements, admitting the girl's condition was "dragging us down", the toddler drowned.

The girl was discovered face down in the inflatable pool on December 3, 2007 - just months after doctors diagnosed her with the incurable condition.

Rett syndrome is suffered almost exclusively by girls and its early symptoms include a regression in speech skills and repetitive hand movements.

Ultimately the girl would have been severely disabled and the inquest heard her parents pleaded with DOCS and health clinics to place her in foster care. The court heard her father asked, "Why do they keep children with these disabilities alive?"

Counsel assisting the coroner, Sergeant Stephen Kelly, said it was possible the little girl had been "immersed in water" for up to 20 minutes.The inquest heard that although the mother was a swimming instructor, she did not perform CPR.

Sgt Kelly said the coroner would have to decide if the girl's death was "by accidental drowning or deliberate act".
 
"And if it was a deliberate act, did that arise because of the threats that had been made by the parents leading up to the death that [she] would be better off dead than alive with Rett syndrome?" he asked.

Maybe this was an accident; maybe it wasn't.  What is clear is if a disabled child was left unattended in a backyard pool for anywhere near 20 minutes, she was not being cared for properly.

It is not surprising that this couple asked for their daughter to be euthanized.  In a society that believes death is a legitimate medical treatment, their request is reasonable.  If this couple had known she had Retts in utero they would have no doubt aborted her.  But Retts doesn't show itself until a girl is 12 to 18 months old when a seemingly normal toddler suddenly begins to lose her ability to speak and becomes developmentally delayed.   That is likely this couple's rational: "If only we had known, we never would have let the pregnancy go to term!  We would have saved her (and us) all that suffering!"

What is tragic is that in recent years there has been some promising treatments for Rett Syndrome tested in mice and now researchers have used induced pluripotent stem cells to create Rett Syndrome neurons as a testing model.  It is very possible that had she lived, this little girl could have seen a treatment for Retts in her lifetime.

This is the fruit of embracing abortion as the "treatment" for genetic defects in fetuses.  Using death as a solution to genetic disorders disregards the possibility that ten, fifteen or twenty years in the future a treatment may be available. 

Contrary to popular belief, aborting genetically diseased children does not cure genetic disease.  It only gets rid of the people with the genetic disease.  And it marginalizes those children that do make it out of the womb.  Like this couple, I am sure there are many other people who also think that if you can abort "defective children" before they are born, then you should be able to kill them after they are born as well.