Real Perfection

Down’s Daughter Taught Mum Lesson About ‘Perfection’


Cathy Yeulet
The Christian Institute

A mother whose daughter was born with Down’s syndrome has shared how her child has helped redefine her ideas of perfection.  Writing for The Telegraph, Rachel Stevenson explains that hearing the news of Tilly’s diagnosis “was like someone had punched me in the face”.

But two and a half years later she says: “My heart bursts with love for her”.

‘The perfect family’

Rachel and husband James lived in a small flat in London with two young children, when they discovered that they were having twins.  Rachel said, “my main worry wasn’t space, but how I could be a good mum to them all. But the silver lining was knowing the twins were a boy and a girl; we’d have two of each – the perfect family”.

After the midwife revealed that Tilly had Down’s syndrome, the family was devastated.  “I could barely breathe for guilt”, Rachel said.

New perspective

Initially her life was filled with sadness and grief for the loss of her ‘perfect’ family. Now Rachel realises how wrong she was.  Whilst explaining Tilly’s condition to her oldest daughter Elizabeth, the child interrupted to say: “But Mummy, everybody is different”. Rachel agreed that her daughter was “spot on.”

“In the early days, I imagined that I could somehow fix everything and make Tilly ‘normal’. But now we would never want to change her.  She is who she is – beautiful, determined, funny, joyous”.

Abortion rise

Rachel said: “Looking back to my reaction when Tilly was born, I realise how ignorant I was about disabilities. James and I assumed that her life would be half-lived – how wrong we were.”  The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has expressed concern after new figures revealed that the number of abortions for Down’s babies has increased by 50 per cent in the last ten years.

The figures show that the number of abortions is at its highest in a decade.

Selective Abortion An Extreme Moral Depravity

Kids with Down Syndrome are Not a Burden

David Marcus
The Federalist

Down Syndrome is disappearing in Europe. In Iceland, it is almost extinct. Very quietly, the most successful eugenics program in human history is advancing and making its way to the United Sates. How is this happening? It’s very simple. Prenatal testing is identifying pregnancies that are likely to result in Down Syndrome kids, and those pregnancies are being aborted, with shocking frequency.

On its own the abortion issue divides us. Whether a baby in the womb may be killed is a debate we struggle to have in constructive ways. But generally the pro-choice movement assures us that abortion is used in cases where any child is unwanted. In the case of selective abortion for sex or disability, a child is wanted, just not the messed-up child his parents weren’t hoping for.

What an age to live in. Get pregnant; see if the baby meets your specifications. If not, just abort and try again. Eventually you are sure to wind up with the bright boy exactly six feet tall who wins all the prizes and marries the prom queen. After all, having a child isn’t really about the child. It’s about you and your hopes and dreams, your demand to live your best life.

Did You Deserve To Be Born?

The choice to have a child, whether the result of grave deliberation or a drunken night of debauchery, is the most harrowing choice a person can make. The hospital hands you this useless bundle of cuteness and says, “Okay, good luck, you’ll figure it out.” Miraculously, for the most part people do figure it out. And there are rewards. The smiles, the snuggling, the little boy or girl climbing into your bed just to be near you because you are everything — it’s profound and beautiful.

No decent parent rejects a child’s love because the child is imperfect. Nobody casts aside an eight-year-old because she has bad grades or an attitude problem.

Letter From America (About Down Syndrome)

People With Down Syndrome Deserve Our Love, Not Genocide

Killing those with Down syndrome serves no rational purpose. It is a policy born of ignorance and fear. Worse, what it communicates to those so affected is simply unimaginable.

Jonathan Lange
The Federalist

Ann Turner Cook recently celebrated her 91st birthday. You may not recognize her name, but you surely know her face. She is the iconic baby sketched in charcoal who has graced Gerber baby-food jars since 1928. 

Gerber recently initiated an annual photo contest to name a national “Spokesbaby of the year.” This year more than 140,000 pictures were submitted, and on February 7 Gerber announced the winner, Lucas Warren.

Son of Courtney and Jason Warren of Dalton, Georgia, Lucas has an infectious smile and an endearing personality. The photo that made him famous caught him in mid-giggle sitting in an overstuffed chair with white pants and aqua shirt, bare feet, and black polka-dot bowtie to complete the ensemble.

The name “Lucas” means “light.” He is certainly that. Courtney said, “We hope this opportunity sheds light on the special needs community and educates people that with acceptance and support, individuals with special needs have the potential to change the world — just like our Lucas!”

His Genes Make Lucas Special

Part of what makes Lucas so adorable is genetic.

That's Not What I Wanted

It's All About Me

Sometimes the mask gets removed and one can see ugly suppurating flesh beneath.  Such was the case recently when an editorial writer for the Washington Post insisted that women "need" the right to abort babies with Down Syndrome.

It was a peculiar assertion.  Surely, in our benighted age, women actually do have (according to the law in most Western countries) a legal right to kill children with Down Syndrome.  So why would this opinionista state the obvious?  Well, it turns out that some states in the United States there is an argument being made that abortion for reason of a baby afflicted with Down Syndrome ought to be against the law.  According to Ruth Marcus, Deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post:

There is a new push in antiabortion circles to pass state laws aimed at barring women from terminating their pregnancies after the fetus has been determined to have Down syndrome. These laws are unconstitutional, unenforceable — and wrong.

Let's focus on the last assertion--namely to prohibit an an abortion on the grounds that the child has Down Syndrome is wrong.

The Logic of One Form of Murder

Warnings about the Logic of Abortion Are Coming True

Brian A. Smith
National Review Online

Ruth Marcus's Washington Post column supporting the abortion of children diagnosed with Down syndrome revealed the disturbing end of pro-abortion arguments.

For some people, freedom isn’t worth having if it means being constrained by circumstances beyond their control. In general, American culture embraces the notion that being truly free is to be liberated from the frailties of our bodies and family circumstances. Almost no one disputes that the liberation that came through the achievements of modern medicine — liberation from early death and many debilitating diseases — is a good thing.

At some point, the quest for freedom became absolute. We can argue about who deserves the blame or when it happened. But now generous and humane countries in Europe allow their citizens to choose physician-assisted suicide at age twelve and parents can choose euthanasia for their children.

The triumph of “quality of life” over human dignity in arguments about abortion and euthanasia didn’t happen all at once.