Today Al Mohler has published a post on his blog that has caused me to pause. "Will Babies with Down Syndrome Just Disappear?" highlights the new blood tests that will be made available in the very near future for the detection of Down Syndrome and other genetic traits without presenting any risks to the developing baby or mother. We already know that 92 percent of mothers who receive such a diagnosis opt for abortion and as a result, through people-watching, we see very few people under 30 who have this condition. It is absolutely appalling.
One really impacting quote he includes in his post (which I highly recommend reading if you have 10 minutes) made me want to share a new view. When expectant parents are presented with prenatal testing, they have a simple choice to make: to continue or abort.
"Knowing this, health care providers have historically operated under the assumption that if a woman consents to prenatal screening or diagnosing, she must believe that having a child with DS would be an undesired outcome and wish to terminate her pregnancy if such a diagnosis were made prenatally."
When Jeramy and I were pregnant with Moriah very shortly after consummating our marriage, the doctors asked me if we wanted to undergo prenatal screening for this and other "inconvenient" conditions our baby might have. We did consider whether or not we would submit to such testing. It was not out of a desire to remove life inconveniences but to prepare for any impending special needs he or she may have. Under no circumstances would we have considered the deliberate murder of our consummate blessing. But upon reading Mohler's post and this quote particularly, I realize that simply submitting to prenatal testing carries with it the assumption of abortion upon a diagnosis of Down's. In other words, it just continues to propagate the Culture of Death and encourages this worldview that dictates that some life is just not worth living and the desire to remain selfishly in control of our own destinies apart from God.
We did not do any prenatal screening on either of our two pregnancies. And I'm glad we didn't.
1 comment:
Great post and so true! We should leave what children we do have up to God, and what abilities or disabilities they have up to him. It is so sad that we humans have even discovered abortion. How can people think it is morally okay to murder a child? I pray that people will realize the wrong that they commit if they abort. It makes me want to cry.
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