A friend of my wife’s was visiting the other day and said, “When I was pregnant, I knew I was carrying a baby, and if a doctor had told me, he could only save me or the baby, that wasn’t even a question: save the baby.”
To which I thought: of course.
My wife’s first pregnancy never put her life at risk, but she did – after a lengthy, arduous labor – have to undergo an emergency c-section because the baby had gone into distress. If, at that moment, she had been asked, It’s either you or the baby, I have no doubt how she would have answered.
Our fifth child was a Down Syndrome baby. We had no warning beforehand – and it was quite a shock. The doctor took me aside and told me that, in addition to other complications, our new daughter would need heart surgery when she was about four months old. She had that surgery, and her recovery was longer and more difficult than expected.
Indeed, it was very touch and go. The doctors and nurses were great. But in a different place, a mother and a father might be counseled, “You didn’t ask for this. Years of sacrifice lie ahead for you. We could, gently, release this child from life. She will suffer no pain. Indeed, she will never feel or know anything.”
Such counsel is being offered right now, in hospitals around the world. It’s commonly offered whenever Down Syndrome turns up in a prenatal screening.
Continue reading here: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/02/13/embrace-the-hard-cases/?mc_cid=f156d894c8&mc_eid=6b9723e384
