I'm an American but studied abroad in Denmark for around 6 months. When I was there, I found out that the Nordic countries have virtually eradicated down syndrome by testing pregnant people for it. 99% choose to abort. How do you guys feel about this?
Personally this is quite disturbing to me. I've known people with down syndrome who live happy, quality lives. Even if it is up to the mother whether or not to abort, when it happens 99% of the time, is it not cultural eugenics? It seems the culture is almost afraid of taking care of a child with down syndrome. Especially in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, where the resources to take care of them are more widely available. If you could test for other things like autism, or even something like extreme depression, would yall do the same thing?
EDIT: I am strongly pro choice and I have talked to many American people on both sides of the political spectrum about this and they unanimously agree with me. On an individual level, I support everyones right to make their own decisions, but when it gets to the population level it becomes more of a cultural issue. There seems to be a cultural agreement that children with down syndrome are too difficult to care for. Does that make it ok to eradicate them? I honestly don't know
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The original was posted on /r/denmark by /u/queen_bs at 2024-03-13 15:12:18+00:00.
SignificanceNo3580 at 2024-03-13 17:04:00+00:00 ID:
kuptwmmYou seem to have misunderstood a few things.
The scan is optional, but recommended and free. They don’t just scan for downs, but also severe disabilities and diseases. The goal isn’t necessarily abortion. It’s important to know any potential risks going through pregnancy and at birth in case you need more monitoring to keep both mother and child safe.
They don’t recommend abortion if your kid does have downs, they are neutral and simply inform you of your options. I personally wouldn’t and without me telling them, they made it abundantly clear to me that the goal of the downs test was to keep me informed so I could make my own decisions and not be blindsided. It’s especially important since giving birth to a baby with downs is considered high risk and it’s therefore not recommended to choose home birth if you’re expecting a child with downs.
I didn’t get a folder about abortion, but I did get one (before I was tested and deemed very low risk) about the beautiful sides of a life with downs. Many people do choose abortion. But people also have a lot of respect for parents that don’t. In general the abortion-debate is very respectful.
There’s a lot of reasons why someone would choose abortion. The health of the mother and child seems like they would be some of the easiest reasons to agree upon.