Talking to Time Magazine about Prenatal Testing and Down Syndrome

Last updated on: February 22, 2012 at 1:50 pm by Amy Julia Becker

Talking to Time Magazine about Prenatal Testing and Down Syndrome 2012-02-22T13:50:16-05:00 Amy Julia Becker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Another image from the photo shoot, courtesy of Reed Young

I read a lot about prenatal testing, especially now that a company called Sequenom has developed a test that purportedly can definitively (well, with 99% accuracy) detect Down syndrome via a maternal blood sample as early as 10 weeks. Usually in the “mainstream” media, I read articles that herald advances in prenatal testing as a way to “prevent” children with disabilities from being born. ABC News reported the test as a way to avoid amniocentesis, and therefore as a way to “Cut Healthy Baby Deaths.” A New York Times article–“Sequenom’s Test for Down Syndrome Raises Hopes and Questions” offered some nuance, but it still presented the information in a purely clinical manner, whereas one of the problems with prenatal testing is that Down syndrome occurs in the context of a human being and a family. A list of statistics can never contain the reality of an individual’s limitations and possibilities.

Then on the more conservative side, I read a lot about how babies with Down syndrome are aborted 90% of the time. It’s not true. (I’ve written at length about this misperception: 90% of Babies with Down Syndrome Aborted? Really?) The real number is closer to 50%, still unbearably high, in my opinion, but also a lot lower than 90%.

All this is a long way of getting to my point, which is that Bonnie Rochman’s article in this week’s TIME magazine, Early Decision, is the best article I’ve ever read about prenatal testing and Down syndrome. Yes, I’m totally biased. Rochman interviewed me for the article, she quotes from A Good and Perfect Gift in the article, and it includes a photo of our family. But I still think it’s the best.

Rochman addresses both sides. She offers a clear explanation of prenatal tests, the abortion rate related to those tests, and the reasons why some women choose to abort a child with Down syndrome. She also challenges the prevailing negative assumptions about Down syndrome:

professor Jacob Canick hailed the results (of a study of the recent Sequenom test) as a ‘major step for prenatal diagnosis’. ” Whether or not you agree hinges largely on how you’d feel about raising a child with Down syndrome.

She goes on to offer a list of positive information and experiences of raising children with Down syndrome:

That job is less frustrating than it’s ever been. While half of all babies born with Down syndrome have congenital heart defects, new surgical techniques have made repair relatively routine, extending their average life span from just 25 in 1983 to 60. Thanks to early educational intervention, more and more affected kids are attending mainstream schools. Teens with Down syndrome go to college; 20-somethings get married. “Now is the time to have kids with Down syndrome,” says Amy Julia Becker, author of A Good and Perfect Gift, about life with her daughter Penny, 6, who has Down syndrome. “It is ironic that [earlier screening] is happening at a time when it’s easier to have Down syndrome than ever before.”

Rochman offers a subtle challenge to some of the premises behind prenatal screening:

putting aside the existential debate over abortion, what does it mean for a society to weed out children with Down syndrome or any of the other less than perfect among us?

On the whole, Rochman doesn’t engage in a debate. Rather, her article offers accurate information about prenatal testing in the context a positive portrait of life with Down syndrome, and this portrayal in and of itself challenges the assumption that a life with Down syndrome is not a life worth living. She interviews another mother, Melanie McLaughlin, about her decision to have her daughter Grace, and she offers a portrait of life as an adult with Down syndrome through the eyes of John Anton. The caption of the photo of Anton reads, “A life in full Anton is typical of adults with Down syndrome. He works late at home, after a day on the job in the Massachusetts statehouse.” Finally, after a description of Penny, she includes one of my favorite quotations from A Good and Perfect Gift:

Can she live a full life without ever solving a quadratic equation? Without reading Dostoyesvsky? I’m pretty sure she can. Can I live a full life without learning to cherish and welcome those in this world who are different from me? I’m pretty sure I can’t.

I first wrote those words in my journal nearly six years ago. I’m all the more sure now that Penny’s life is and can be just as full as mine, and that mine is far more rich and whole than it would ever be without her presence in it. Thank you, Bonnie Rochman and Time magazine, for a beautiful and honest portrayal of life with Down syndrome.

*** If you liked the Time magazine article about prenatal testing and Down syndrome as much as I did, write a letter to the editor: http://www.time.com/time/letters/email_letter.html

***You can see the article in full on Reed Young’s (the photographer’s) blog

Previous Post

February 21, 2012

Photo Shoot with TIME, or What Does Down syndrome Look Like?

Next Post

February 22, 2012 Lenten Reflections: What Does Drinking Wine Have to do with Needing God?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Articles Books Disability Down Syndrome Faith family Perfectly Human Uncategorized

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 September 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz