Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask your oppinion about children born with genetic defects.
My girlfriend and i will soon be parents, and we agreed to do a NIPT test. Everything was good, but we agreed beforehand that if any defects were found we would effectively terminate the pregnancy. Our oppinion is that it's a human/parents duty to make sure that, if possible, your child is healty (healthy genetics in my oppinion is essential for human survival).
We get confronted a lot here with 'propaganda' for Down syndrome here, that they are a blessing... no blame to the children, but if the choise and the means are available, why would you want your child to suffer from a genetic disability?
What are your guys thoughts on this?
Greetings,
S from Belgium
Natural Born Atheïst
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I strongly agree with your decision. Your offspring will be greatly advantaged if their genetic health is good, and desperately disadvantaged if their genetics have life-compromising flaws. Recognizing this and giving your genetic offspring the greatest advantage possible is reasonable, rational, and morally sound. Don't let a delusional group of people fixated on souls and god's will and god-don't-make-no-mistakes type philosophy distract you from what you are actually doing. You are reproducing. You have every reason to ensure your reproduction is successful.
Man, what a sticky situation. For now all I'll say (to anyone reading this, since IamLordKaine is in the clear already) is if you get a positive result from the test, get another (different kind) of test before you make any major decisions. Since the rate of occurrence is much lower than the false positive rate: the vast majority of initial positive tests will necessarily be false. See: False positive paradox.
they automaticly restest here with a postive result.
well that is good to hear!
Some folks will agree and some will disagree with your decision. In the end, however, it is YOUR decision to make.
Until herr twittler gets his two supreme court appointees... and then there will be no choice
For those of us in the U.S., yes.
I'll say it. Perhaps I'm just the biggest prick on the forum, but I would do the same thing. However, the future happiness of the child would be absolutely secondary to that of my partner and I. I would support this decision for almost PURELY selfish reasons. It's a challenge I would personally avoid at this, or any point in my life.