Monday, April 18. 2011The Blame Game: Prenatal Genetic Testing and AbortionTrackbacks
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We were offered multiple genetics tests with two of our girls. (#3 had a cystic hygroma at 12 weeks, #4 fell off the growth chart around 20 weeks) We considered having the tests done, but weighed the risks/rewards. With abortion not being an option, we looked at how the results would be used. Could it be used to treat the baby in some way if it showed some sign of problem? No? Then don't bother, since it increases the risk of miscarriage.
Of course, even without having the tests done, abortion was still offered (pushed a little, until they recognized that we truly are pro-life). #3 could have had Down's or a couple of other genetic diseases. #4 could have had cystic fibrosis. We accepted that possibility, and since there is currently no treatment it made no sense to endanger their lives. The tests themselves don't cause more abortions, but too often the results of the tests are used to justify abortion. If these tests were available to us six years ago we might have used them...not to choose abortion but to better prepare ourselves for caring for a child with special needs.
I know that sickening feeling all too well. What launched me from being just pro-life to being active in the pro-life movement was hearing my thesis committee chair (who fortunately lacked the funding to take me on as a student years before), at a lecture, say that the only medical application of her research into the genetics of cerebellar development was to advise parents on when to abort. She was being funded by the March of Dimes, so every time I walk by one of their ads that says "One day, all babies will be born healthy..." I can't help but mentally ad "...because we help kill all the ones who aren't."
You're absolutely right, though. The problem isn't the testing. It's abortion on demand, but it's also a medical culture that's far to comfortable with telling women to kill their children for the smallest reasons, either because they're afraid of a lawsuit down the road, or they don't want to deal with a difficult case, or they really don't value human life...or, to be charitable, because they really are trying to spare women heartache or the cost of treating special needs children. It just scares me (not being a mother yet) that the person my future children should most fear is the doctor that's supposed to help bring them into the world. ![]()
Rebecca,
I agree with your assessment and have spoken out about this both on my own blog and in my medical school courses. The one caveat I have when reading your post is the fact that even if we have excellent, minimally invasive genetic tests, there are very few cures. Why is this? Because there is no funding for curing Downs or other genetic diseases. Money is continually being funneled into prenatal testing, but very little, if any, money is being put towards actually developing a cure. I have research on this very technique that you speak of, and I have wrestled with these questions as well. Jerome Lejeune, of happy memory, spent his life towards this, and has his invaluable research been furthered? No! So until there is funding towards cures for these disease and active research being pursued, I am going to be very wary of any new prenatal diagnostic testing that comes out. Thanks for your great blog!
Excellent comments. Thank-you.
Brian, I agree with you that the cures are slow. I think it is because of abortion. If 90% of Downs children are aborted, there is not an urgent push to find treatments or cures. In other words, the medical community is embracing abortion as the cure when it is nothing of the sort. So again I blame the abortion. I think the wary feelings are valid. I get them too. I have to force myself sometimes to remember that it is the abortion that is the evil.
Rebecca,
I completely agree that abortion is to blame for the low funding for research into cures for genetic diseases. I would also say that I do not see prenatal testing as something evil. Quite contrary. As I said, I did research while in Pittsburgh on this very area and even had a paper published in relation to prenatal genetics. The issue that I see is that even if prenatal testing in theory is amoral, in the real world it has great moral implications. And it is in this arena that I feel the wariness. As future physician, I know I will need to be carefully discussing this issue with my patients so that they can make the complete informed decision about whether to pursue testing or not. I know for my own sake, with my first child, and with my wife's current pregnancy, we have decided not to do any prenatal screening because there is so little we would do with the information.
Years ago, during my second pregnancy I was strongly urged by several 'medical professionals', from Doctors on down to a testing clinic receptionist, to have a whole battery of these tests because my first child has a chronic neurological condition.
What became most terrifyingly apparent to me during this process was that the sincere, gentle and very sweet Genetic Counselor had little to NO understanding of statistical significance. Her interpretation of the percent chances of certain diseases was off by orders of magnitude. Subsequently, several other women in the labs where I worked were pregnant and had this same experience with different 'Genetic Counselors' at different facilities. I think that one of the true scandals of the testing industry is that well meaning, sweet young women are hired to 'break the news' on test results who have little to no medical background and who aren't equipped to provide any scientifically accurate interpretation of these results. Its difficult for me not to see this as one more arm of the abortion industry in action. Encouraging women to abort their children based on the flimsiest 'evidence' of genetic defect. |
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