Poll: Would you abort a pregnancy if the child would have Down Syndrome?

[imnot]

i feel really evil now, but yes i would, now excuse me i have to go cry in the corner.

 

[Andothul]

It pains me to say it and i am normally against abortion but probably yes.

Why would i want to put my child through a life like that, and the amount of care that would have to be given would detract from my other children.

I would rather they not suffer, than be born and be euthanized like they did before modern medicine.

Edit: Its a very difficult question and even an hour after posting this i have a bad taste in my mouth about it. Still i stick by it.

 

[Willwillwritehiswill]

My sister has down syndrome. She is one of the most love-filled people you'll ever meet. Anyone who has ever cared for down syndrome people will tell you how wonderfully they see the world.

I'm not a pro-life nut. I'm not even religious. But I would NEVER abort a baby just because it might turn out a little different. And, frankly, I'm genuinely disgusted at the amount of people who have voted "yes".

 

[teebeeohh]

yes, i would also shut down life support for anyone close to me if they have no chacne of waking up

 

[Karathos]

Depends
are the disabilities of the child going to prevent him from experiencing the world the way we do??

down syndrome means the kid will be "stupid" (sorry for the bluntness but it is necesary to make a point) does that mean you would kill every kid with an IQ lower than 100??

I don't recall anyone saying anything about killing children with low IQ's. This was about unborn children with birth defects.

if the kid is not disabled, meaning, he is able to eat, move and experience the world in his oun why would you kill him??

OH RIGHT!! ITS A BURDEN!! TROUBLE!! YOU WOULD HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF SOMETHING OTHER THAN YOURSELVE

yes, because i know that everyone in here would rather kill your problems than overcome them

Ad hominem - really? Wow, I thought people had evolved past that. Been a while since I've seen one on the Escapist. (Probably don't read the forums enough...)

and of course, a fetus is not alive why would it be wrong to kill it for our selfish way of thinking?? lets destroy a life instead of growing up and taking care of it!

the audience in here is wrong, people who would rather live their selfish little lives instead of really thinking about being responsible human beings and accepting that they need to mature for something other than themselves.

They're wrong - says you. There is nothing "responsible" about not aborting an unborn child. You simply disagree and are throwing around ad hominem arguments left and right. Instead of discussing the issue, you're attacking the people with different opinions. Apparently people who disagree with you are selfish and irresponsible.

fear makes us do a bunch of things, but come on, i never thought people would fail to see they are saying they would rather do a "Nazi" policy over being troubled with the care of a less smart kid COME ON!

And a little nazi-card thrown in for good measure. A recipe for success!

 

[HentMas]

That doesn't make Godwin's Law apply any less. The nazi-card was pulled, plain and simple. People expressed opinions, and other people countered those opinions by trying to apply the typical guilt-by-association and you-monster-regular-guilt techniques.

Haha, and now you think its ok to be all smug and say that??

its not an irracional thought, they are talking about killing down syndrome babies, and that was a policy of nazi germany, its not a "guilt-by-association" its the SAME THING

but i understand that most people would do it for fear of growing up... and thats what makes me think "damn... people are selfish and evil"

 

[Mighty the Moose]

First, I think I would realize that it is not truly my decision. That said, I would strongly suggest to my girlfriend/wife to go for the abortion. Ultimately, if she truly wanted to keep the child, I would of course support her decision...

... for about 1 year I'm guessing to make sure the diagnosis was correct. Then I would run away in the middle of the night, and take the cats while I'm at it. She can keep my collection of cuff links and haute couture bowties.

 

[Karathos]

That doesn't make Godwin's Law apply any less. The nazi-card was pulled, plain and simple. People expressed opinions, and other people countered those opinions by trying to apply the typical guilt-by-association and you-monster-regular-guilt techniques.

But if people are saying things like 'we should remove subhumans to strengthen the race' I don't think it's entirely unfair to compare it to Hitler's sketchy knowledge of eugenics. That's an appropriate analogy to use in that case, the one in another thread comparing Microsoft to the Nazis isn't appropriate but comparing people who believe in removing inferior elements from the genepool is.

I see your point, but I don't think Godwin's Law looks at the situation. It simply states that when a discussion becomes longer, the chances for a Hitler-reference become larger. In this case, we obviously didn't have to wait a long time. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

 

[Dys]

I'm unsure how I could ever find myself in a position where it's a planned pregnancy, as I don't have any intention of ever being a parented.

I very much doubt that I'm capable of raising a perfect child in ideal circumstance, as such I imagine I would abort a featus that was diagnosed with down syndrome (or any other serious medical condition).

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

No, why should i kill someone because they are different? thats exactly what happened in the Holocaust.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

That doesn't make Godwin's Law apply any less. The nazi-card was pulled, plain and simple. People expressed opinions, and other people countered those opinions by trying to apply the typical guilt-by-association and you-monster-regular-guilt techniques.

But if people are saying things like 'we should remove subhumans to strengthen the race' I don't think it's entirely unfair to compare it to Hitler's sketchy knowledge of eugenics. That's an appropriate analogy to use in that case, the one in another thread comparing Microsoft to the Nazis isn't appropriate but comparing people who believe in removing inferior elements from the genepool is.

I see your point, but I don't think Godwin's Law looks at the situation. It simply states that when a discussion becomes longer, the chances for a Hitler-reference become larger. In this case, we obviously didn't have to wait a long time. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Tbh, logically the longer a discussion becomes the greater the chance that a referance to anything will occur, just because. i dont believe that you should just point out when someone includes the nazis. seems kinda ignorant to me

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Yes, I wouldn't want a child of mine to have to live through that.

(Huge Sarcasm)
Yes, of course, especially if it didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes. It wouldn't fit in our perfect Nazi society. And, hey, after we murder the baby, then we can go to a book burning.

Godwin's Law.

Not sure if it's Godwin's Law if it's an appropriate comparison. Frankly there are a lot of people in this subject saying that they don't think of disabled people as people. I believe the Nazi's term for people they euthanised for this was 'life unworthy of life' and frankly that's what I'm seeing a lot of in this topic.

I doesn't matter how appropriate the comparison may be, once Hitler or Nazis in general are used, it's game over man, game over.

EDIT: Ah, I see you've already done this with the other guy. Well, my explanation is for the "Extended Godwin's Law" which states that once the normal Godwin's law is invoked, all discussion of the topic should cease.

 

[Karathos]

No, why should i kill someone because they are different? thats exactly what happened in the Holocaust.

If we're to be specific, the discussion was originally about if people would or wouldn't abort an unborn fetus if they found out it had a birth defect.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think the Nazis aborted that many unborn fetuses. From a wide perspective, you're obviously right, but I'd dare suggest there's a slight difference between gassing a... say, 40-year old woman, and aborting a fetus - a difference that most people saying "Yes I would" are probably finding very important in their decisionmaking.

 

[Treefingers]

The better question is why didn't you stop the mother when she was reaching for the wine bottle?

I suspect i may have been ninja'd, so apologies if you've heard this already, but Down's Syndrome isn't caused by mothers drinking alcohol.

 

[Amphoteric]

Better to have downs syndrome than to be dead. If you had the choice right now would you chose to get the mutation or be dead.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Downs syndrome? Try again and hope for better. I don't want to deal with that as a parent; if I'm to spend years of my life raising a child, I want it to be well worth the effort. I apologize to all the bleeding hearts for this sentiment, but frankly, I don't care: it doesn't matter to me that a fetus would die. It has the same moral status to me as the ejaculate that dripped out into the covers. The question is which potential human beings are to have the gift of my parentage? It's a limited resource, and I reserve the right to be of discriminating taste. There are many potential lives out there that vanish the instant someone hesitates to ask someone to dinner or decides that they don't find another person attractive. We're all subtle eugenicists when it comes to our own children. Some of just won't admit it.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

No, why should i kill someone because they are different? thats exactly what happened in the Holocaust.

If we're to be specific, the discussion was originally about if people would or wouldn't abort an unborn fetus if they found out it had a birth defect.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think the Nazis aborted that many unborn fetuses. From a wide perspective, you're obviously right, but I'd dare suggest there's a slight difference between gassing a... say, 40-year old woman, and aborting a fetus - a difference that most people saying "Yes I would" are probably finding very important in their decisionmaking.

But on the most basic of levels thats what it boils down to, i didnt read anybody elses post except the fist page until after i had posted, and im proud that others share the same point of view as me. i believe Dr mendel (or whatever his name was) did do experiments on many people who were pregnant, and on many people with learning difficulties

I hold my point of view primarliy because my brother has very severe autism. and my feeling is that once people accept that its ok to start aboting people who are slightly 'off' and they create new ways to detect these defaults beforehand then someone like my brother may never have been born, and dispite his odd behavior, and the fact that most of the time he is very anoying, he is still my brother, and most of the time he is my best friend, it would be terrible if that could never have happened.

Also if everyone did start aborting anyone with a slight defect, and started creating 'designer babies', which is possible, as in to select certain features, then anyone who is still alive who is different will be persecuted because of human nature, why should everyone be the same, someone once said that variety is the spice of life, why cant we accept everyones differences and move on

 

[CrashBang]

Yes. I'm not good at handling mentally handicapped people at all. Seriously, I get nervous and I sweat and I freak out, so I couldn't handle it with my own child. Although Down Syndrome is not as bad as a lot of mental illnesses I still couldn't do it

 

[Evilsanta]

Yes i would. People with Down's dont really live and becomes burdens for their familly i wouldnt want that to happen. And not that i want to sound heartless or anything but you can always make a new one.