Best off not getting it done Iâd say really
And there hasnât been any children with DS in Iceland born for a few years now since this came in. You all know my situation and I just think this policy in Iceland is just so, so sad.
There was an excellent documentary on the BBC made by an actress whoâs name escapes me now (she was in the Alan Partridge series set in the hotel years ago) and who is the mother of her son who is a child with DS. She went to Iceland to see the effect of the screening. Basically her point that in modern society with the screening that is available and with medical advances that within X amount of years there will be no children with Down Syndrome.
Even watching the doc, the number given for the population of people with DS in the UK seemed to me to be very low compared to Ireland. I must look it up as a percentage of population between the two nations.
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and the knock on affect of that policy is that money and time put into research and facilities drops significantly
That was our view.
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Test is available here - we were offered it but test at the time carried a miscarriage risk. We declined it.
We were offered it on both our bhoys and declined.
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+1
I donât know your situation mate? - But if you could avoid it why would you want a down syndrome child? Obviously if it happened you would love the child unconditionally but if it could be avoided I presume 100% of people would go down that route, no?
After we were told that our daughter was a child with Down Syndrome, of course you are gutted, but the child has just been born, as in you have the child, taken over to one side, checked and then they come back and say that your daughter more than likely is a child with Down Syndrome. So the emotion of child birth and the beauty that goes with that is very quickly taken away from you.
My sorrow was that we knew we were having a girl so I had projected 30 years down the line and walking her down the aisle. And now that was gone (or so I thought) but now that seems so silly. And then I was angry as our paediatrician who we were with when we had Ben & Jerry at one scan checked via the scan for DS and said that my daughter didnât have DS. The bollox didnât make the birth either so I had a lot of anger towards him, be it deserved or not - I know people make mistakes and can only go on what they see but I remember clearly him saying it and ticking that box in my head. And yes there was relief in my mind right then when I thought our daughter wasnât a child with Down Syndrome.
But our daughter was born and who is there with you is your beautiful child, this vulnerable life who needs you right there and now no matter what syndrome or condition they have. Beauty is beauty and comes in all different shapes and forms.
Would I take away Down Syndrome from my daughter, yes, of course I would, in a heartbeat. But in the same breath I wouldnât give her back and I thank God for her in my life. Without her I would be nothing, sheâs the best thing that ever happened to me, the most pure gift I could have ever received. She makes me the proudest parent every day and the love she gives to you, Christ if you could bottle it youâd make your fortune.
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Thatâs a lovely post, mate - And I imagine the sentiments of anyone with a DS child and more than likely my own if I were to have a child with DS - I wasnât getting at anything or being personal just hitting on what you said in the first half of your post really.
Come here Mouse, I get what you are saying. And you didnât know the craic and thatâs grand pal. Iâm only putting across the other side of this debate.
Like I said, youâd take anything away from your kids in order for them to be ânormalâ but what Iâve learnt is that normal isnât what I thought it was. Normal is whatâs put in front of you, normal isnât necessarily having all your whitâs or faculties or whatever.
Part of being a parent of a child with Down Syndrome is bringing DS into the mainstream, that it isnât frightening, that it is normal. Normal people who happen to have more needs. Simple
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Being honest, iâd judge the kid more for being protestant than having DS, mate. 
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Weâre all Godâs children Mouse. Itâs just that my God is more middle class than yoursâŚ
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What do you mean here?
If someone gets an STD they should live with it as an STD is entitled to life.
So DS children have no right to live?
Sorry to hear that mate. Iâve got a 6 year old boy with non-verbal autism. It was a huge shock when we spotted the warning signs at about 12 months as you think youâve got over the hump at birth of a healthy child and all that and everything that could go wrong. As you said, it just becomes your normal after a while and you get on with the hand you were dealt.
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Babies and STDs.
Part of the problem parents of DS children face is people like you who use the condition to issue cruel insults. Your comments about Seamus Coleman were horrendous and now we have you on your moral high horse pontificating to parents about DS. You canât have it both ways pal.
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