Dear future mom ...

I would never judge a woman who decided to have an abortion because of abnormal development of a fetus. But this kind of movie would help her to consider all choices. Information, not prohibition should guide her decision.

The video is clearly intended to evoke the topic of abortion, hence why it refers to future motherhood and to the fear many mothers experience when they receive a prenatal diagnosis. The reason why this video is inappropriate is because it is misleading and exclusionary. It asks the question 'what kind of life will my child have?' but then only gives one scenario. The assurances that it does give - e.g. that the future child will be able to live alone in an apartment, to work, to travel etc - only apply to some people with down syndrome. Many people with down syndrome (like one of my relatives whom I love very much) have profound intellectual and physical disabilities as a result of the extra chromosome and therefore need full-time care and face severe challenges with communication and daily life. To tell prospective parents that their child WILL grow be able to rent an apartment etc etc is pure fabrication. Based on my relative's experience, I wouldn't be able to assure parents that their child will grow up to talk, get dressed independently or cross the road safely alone, let alone travel or live alone.

Down Syndrome is a spectrum of many different experiences and abilities, and prospective parents need to be given full information, not just the best possible outcomes. This video erases the complexity of Down Syndrome as a chromosomal disorder - and it marginalises and ignores those people whose lives have been most severely impacted by their extra chromosome, by pretending they don't even exist. As always, anti-choice advocates are more focused on protecting non-sentient, non-feeling fetuses than they are actually standing up for people with disabilities. Like so many others (over 90% of women with intellectual disabilities, according to some statistics), my relative has been the victim of sexual assault in residential care. They have also been physically and financially abused. But few people are trying to improve the disability care sector or to help victims. THAT is brutal, and our whole society is complicit.

So go on, continue to try to make women feel guilty by falsely attributing interests and rights to fetuses, presumably motivated by some archaic religious belief. But given that fetuses have no awareness, sentience or any other morally relevant characteristics (especially at the stage pre-natal testing occurs) women shouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty for having any abortion(s), regardless of their reasons. All of us, however, should feel horribly guilty that our society routinely ignores people with severe intellectual disabilities and offers them sub-standard 'care' services where they are too often assaulted, abused, neglected and exploited.

people are going to hate me for it, but i could not do it. i'm sorry. if i ever found out that my unborn child has a mental or physical disability, i would put it up for adoption or do an abortion. i'm sorry. some people can handle it, and others can not. i for one, can't handle people like that. (not that i don't like them, i just can't handle it. like some people can't handle children ect) some people with down syndrome can grow up happily. but they do that in a family where they have the opportunity to do so. i couldn't give them that. but i do speak just for myself. 

If someone isn't ready for having a child with down syndrome, they aren't capable to handle a baby until they are damn sure that they are prepared for it no matter what the case is.

A touching video but unfortunately it is giving the impression that raising a child with Down Syndrome would be like raising any child and that's simply not true. Down people have special needs.

It is important to recognize that while a person who has Down Syndrome can have a good life it is also possible for them to have a terrible life. Just because we see many images of happy people with Down Syndrome it would be wrong to say they are all happy, that is like saying all brow eyed people are smart, it is an unhelpful generalization. It is also important to remember that people with disabilities are far more likely to be abused and neglected than people from the general population. So yes they can have a happy life is the right thing to say.