Eugenics

Andrea over at Beanie Baby wrote a wonderful piece on this topic - it's really worth the time to read it (I only wish I was so great with words!). You can read the full text here. This is a snippet of what she's writing about:

When there is something considered "wrong" with the fetus women are offered, no, encouraged, to tx because wrong must equal bad right? Because we're trying to create a "perfect" human race...:

"1. It’s based on bigotry and fear.
2. It expresses repugnant beliefs about the value of human life.
3.It is based on a mishmash of completely erroneous and highly questionable beliefs about “human nature” and the inevitability of these decisions."

What this perspective entirely ignores is the tremendous difference in quality of life for a person with T21 born today: They are no longer considered ineducable, so they receive educations that make a huge difference in their potential and their quality of life. I don’t have the time to dig up the links at present, but persons with T21 today are getting married, having and raising children, living independently, employed, obtaining bachelor’s and (in some cases) master’s degrees, and in most ways living normal lives. The fears of permanent dependency are in most cases the result of ignorance and bigotry, not fact. Anyone who thinks that a person’s contribution to the world can be predetermined by their genetics is smoking a double-stuffed crack pipe.

I only hope that I need not point out how sad and hollow a definition of a person’s worth it is when you conflate “contribution” with “earning potential,” “highest degree obtained” or “impressiveness of business card.” If your “genetically normal” kid grows up to have a job designing cigarette advertisements or defending major corporations against pollution liability suits, then might I suggest we all would be better off had you tested prenatally for selfish tendencies and aborted ... instead?

and she ends with this, "What I want to know is: Where is the scientist working to discover the genetic basis of assholery, and how soon can a definitive test for it be offered in the first trimester?"