{"id":205433,"date":"2018-03-10T12:10:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T17:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=205433"},"modified":"2018-03-10T12:10:15","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T17:10:15","slug":"washington-post-columnist-killed-syndrome-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/washington-post-columnist-killed-syndrome-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post columnist: I would have killed my Down syndrome child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Via PXHere\/Public Doman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some are hailing this as \u201ccourageous.\u201d<\/a><\/strong> I can think of a few other adjectives, including \u201ccowardly,\u201d \u201ccruel,\u201d \u201cinhuman\u201d and \u201cbrutal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herewith, a part of an\u00a0opinion piece<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, defending her constitutional right to commit murder:<\/p>\n

I have had two children; I was old enough, when I became pregnant, that it made sense to do the testing for Down syndrome. Back then, it was amniocentesis, performed after 15 weeks; now,\u00a0chorionic villus sampling<\/a>\u00a0can provide a conclusive determination as early as nine weeks. I can say without hesitation that, tragic as it would have felt and ghastly as a second-trimester abortion would have been, I would have terminated those pregnancies had the testing come back positive. I would have grieved the loss and moved on.<\/p>\n

And I am not alone. More than two-thirds of American women\u00a0choose abortion<\/a>\u00a0in such circumstances. Isn\u2019t that the point \u2014 or at least inherent in the point \u2014 of prenatal testing in the first place?<\/p>\n

If you believe that abortion is equivalent to murder, the taking of a human life, then of course you would make a different choice. But that is not my belief, and the Supreme Court has\u00a0affirmed my freedom<\/a>\u00a0to have that belief and act accordingly.<\/p>\n

I respect \u2014 I admire \u2014 families that knowingly welcome a baby with Down syndrome into their lives. Certainly, to be a parent is to take the risks that accompany parenting; you love your child for who she is, not what you want her to be.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She goes on:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to be blunt here: That was not the child I wanted. That was not the choice I would have made. You can call me selfish, or worse, but I am in good company. The evidence is clear that most women confronted with the same unhappy alternative would make the same decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, Marc Thiessen in the same paper just published this:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Sadly, there will always be those who see people with Down syndrome as nothing more than a burden on society. Princeton University professor Robert George recently tweeted out a shocking video in which a bureaucrat from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment uses a blackboard to show a man with Down syndrome how \u201cexpensive\u201d he is for society compared with \u201cnormal\u201d people. \u201cDo the Dutch, who suffered under \u2014 and in many cases heroically resisted \u2014 Hitler\u2019s domination, forget that the \u2018final solution\u2019 began with the dehumanization and eugenic killing of the handicapped?\u201d\u00a0George asked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, more and more people with Down syndrome are speaking out and demanding recognition of their humanity. Recently, Frank Stephens\u00a0appeared<\/a>\u00a0before a House appropriations panel, where he told members of Congress, \u201cI am a man with Down syndrome, and my life is worth living.\u201d Noting the abortion rates for Down syndrome babies in Europe, he declared, \u201cI completely understand that the people pushing this particular \u2018final solution\u2019 are saying that people like me should not exist,\u201d but pleaded, \u201cLet\u2019s be America, not Iceland or Denmark. .\u2009.\u2009. Let\u2019s pursue inclusion, not termination.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is simply intolerable that so many joyous lives are being snuffed out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some are hailing this as \u201ccourageous.\u201d I can think of a few other adjectives, including \u201ccowardly,\u201d \u201ccruel,\u201d \u201cinhuman\u201d and \u201cbrutal.\u201d Herewith, a part of an\u00a0opinion piece\u00a0by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post, defending her constitutional right to commit murder: I have had two children; I was old enough, when I became pregnant, that it made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":205439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pro-life"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington Post columnist: I would have killed my Down syndrome child<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some are hailing this as "courageous." 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