When I was pregnant with my daughter one of the tests came back that she possibly had Trisomy 18, a genetic defect that always ends in the death of the child by the time they are 1 (usually much sooner). We were given counseling on our options. But the chances that she actually had the defect were something like .5%. They wanted to do an amnio to see, but the amnio had a miscarriage rate of 2% so I declined and decided we would watch the markers and see what happened. At 32 weeks they were able to rule out Trisomy 18 with an ultrasound.
But what would we have done if she did have Trisomy 18? I'm not sure. it would have depended on her quality of life. If she was going to be in horrible pain then I would have considered it merciful to end it before she had to go through that. But if she would have been in decent shape I would have enjoyed and been grateful for the time we had together.
As for a loving choice, I do see how abortion could be loving, as in the case of a woman who has quadruplets in her belly and they will all die unless one or two are selectively aborted. Not saying it's an easy decision or one without sadness but I wouldn't put this woman in the same category as the woman who flagrantly has sex knowing she will just abort any pregnancies.
|