Good morning to Miss Lee Sa and my fellow friends. Before I continue with my speech, I would like to show all of you a few pictures. These are the pictures of a fetus in a mother’s womb. Now, I would like to ask a question. If this child is diagnosed with Down Syndrome and as a parent of this child, would you abort it? Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to my topic for today which is “Abortion of a Down Syndrome Child Is Not Right”.
My first reason for saying that it is not right to abort a Down syndrome child is simply because the child is a human. Research shows that 40% of parents terminate their pregnancy when the child is diagnosed with Down syndrome. Does having Down syndrome make the child any less human and thus does not deserve a life on earth? The child is also like any other child and deserves love, respect and dignity. Some of you might say “aborting the child is better than sending him to a living hell on earth as they will not be able to cope with the society”. How sure are you about it? The child is not a marionette where you can gain control with a few pull of strings. You don’t know how he feels. He might want to come to this world and experience the ups and downs of life. Kathryn Lynard Soper, mother of a Down syndrome child had fears of their happiness when her first Down Syndrome child was born. Moreover, his health was unstable. However the more time she spent with him, the more she thinks of him as a cute baby. As his health stabilized and the more she got to know him as a person, she began to be excited that he was there and the fear slowly vanished. She began to have a beautiful experience. If you ask her if she is happy, she will answer you with a resounding “YES!” and adds that we will be happy if we choose to be.
Moving on to my second point which is on the responsibility of parents. Parents should be responsible for their own creation. Every pregnancy has its risks and Down Syndrome is one of them. If you’re not prepared to face the risks, then you should be more careful not to get pregnant. A Down Syndrome child just need a little more attention, patience and effort to take care of. Please do not give the three words excuse which are “not enough time”. Every God’s creation is entrusted with 24 hours a day and if other mothers can do it, why can’t you? For example, a couple in Colorado insisted on giving birth to a Down Syndrome child whom they named Jacob. They never regretted giving birth to him. In addition to that, they are leading a happy and normal life. The couple did try for a second child but never succeeded. They say that Jacob is a blessing and if they had aborted him, they would be left with nothing now. The mother also quoted Pope John Paul II writing in Mulieris Dignitatem para. 30 “God entrusts human being to her in a special way in every situation of her life”.
Continuing to my third and final point, having a Down Syndrome child gives new life experiences to oneself. Undeniably, taking care of a Down Syndrome child has never been an easy task, but there are tons of new things to be learnt from it. For example, maybe life doesn’t always have to be so perfect in order to be happy. Another mother of a Down Syndrome child, Janine Steck Huffmann said this according to her own experience, “He has taught me a lesson I still work through everyday – that the value of life, a human, a child is not measured by how much he or she can accomplish, but by how much he or she can teach about what really matters”.
In conclusion, a Down Syndrome child is also a human being. Plus, it is a parent’s responsibility to take care of the child. Furthermore, new experiences can be gained from a Down Syndrome child. Therefore, I am certain that although aborting a Down Syndrome child may seem like the easy way out, it is certainly not the right thing to do. THANK YOU!
Credits to: kathrynlynardsoper.com
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