LIFE DIGEST: Senate panel OKs bill to aid Down syndrome parents
- Mar 4, 2008 - comment
Legislation seeking to protect unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome or other conditions has cleared its first congressional hurdle.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act, S. 1810, by unanimous consent Feb. 27.
The measure seeks to address the lack of information and support reportedly given to parents whose unborn children are diagnosed with conditions such as Down syndrome.
It is estimated about 90 percent of American children diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome are aborted. A similar abortion percentage exists for unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and dwarfism, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan.
The bill would require parents who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or another impairment for their child before birth or until a year after birth to be provided with the latest information on the condition and be informed of support services available. It also would establish a registry of families willing to adopt special needs children.
“It is difficult, sometimes overwhelming, for expecting parents to receive news that their unborn child may be born with a disability,” Brownback said in a written release. “This legislation will help parents receiving such news by supplying them with current and reliable information about the many options available for caring for children with disabilities.”
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D.-Mass., is the lead cosponsor of the bill.
Near loss of life support, wife comes out of coma
The doctors gave up on Yvonne Sullivan, but her husband did not.
Dominic Sullivan “told off” his wife as physicians prepared to take her off life support, and she began a dramatic recovery in two hours. The 28-year-old wife has since made a full recovery, according to the Telegraph, a British newspaper.
In July, Yvonne went into a coma with severe blood poisoning moments after learning her newborn son, Clinton, had died of a blood infection. Two weeks later, doctors told her husband they would have to turn off life support.
“You start fighting,” Dominic said as he held Yvonne’s hand, the Telegraph reported. “Don’t you dare give up on me now. I’ve had enough, stop mucking around and start breathing. Come back to me.”
She started breathing two hours later. Doctors at Bristol Royal Infirmary were able to turn off her ventilator five days later, the newspaper reported.
She recalls hearing Dominic yell at her, even though she was in a coma, Yvonne said. His verbal demand motivated her to bounce back, she said.
“I can’t remember exactly what he said. . . . Something inside me just clicked, and I began to fight again,” she said, according to the Telegraph. “When I came around I thought he’d been gone a few minutes; then he told me I’d been out for two weeks. It’s a miracle. I owe him so much.”
U.N. leader wages war against violence to women, even unborn
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has helped launch a multi-year effort to combat violence against women – even those in the womb.
Speaking to the Commission on the Status of Women Feb. 25 in New York, Ban said, “Violence against women is an issue that cannot wait. A brief look at the statistics makes it clear. At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge.”
Sex-selection abortion has been a growing problem in recent years, especially in some Asian countries, where parents often favor sons, at least in part, because of a desire to be supported by them in old age.
China and India have led the way in using ultrasounds to identify females in the womb and then to abort them. The result has been a growing imbalance between males and females being born.
China had 120 males born for every 100 females in 2005, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported. The normal ratio is about 105 to 100. The ratio was as high as 130 to 100 in some provinces, according to UNFPA.
India’s 2001 census showed the ratio nationally was 108 to 100, but some northern and western states had a ratio as high as 120 to 100, UNFPA reported.
Nepal and Vietnam are prepared to follow China and India’s examples by utilizing ultrasounds to identity females and eliminate them, UNFPA reported in October.
The anti-violence campaign will last until 2015, Ban said.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life by supporting bills such as the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
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