Would you let go of a birth defect baby?

Question

If you were to find out that the baby you were carrying was going to have birth defects ie, spina bifida, cerebral palsy or downs syndrome etc.. would you end the pregnancy or would you continue on with it

Im not going through this myself, its just something im curious about

Answer 1

I have and 11, 8 and 2 year old. If if i found out that I was in this situation I would terminate the pregnancy immediately.

Sounds awful but let me explain that my 8 year had brain damage before birth and he has special needs. I couldnt cope. My 2 year old was unplanned and that was a difficult decision to go ahead ( I planned a termination but couldnt do it).

I would be torn and wracked with guilt but my whole family's quality of life would be non existent.

Thats what I would want to do. I dont know if I could go through with it in real life though. I dont envy any person in this situation.

And can I add, my 8 year old is the light of my life.

Answer 2

Unless I was faced with that its impossible to know what you would do. I can 100% say if I knew I was having a downs syndrome child I would not abort as I know these children have an excellent quality of life. Spina bifida and cerebral palsy I have little knowledge about.

I feel its unfair to bring a severley disabled child into the world but equally as bad to abort the child so really do not know.I think I would allow god to have his will but really cant say for certain.

Answer 3

i honestly don't know.i guess i would have to see what my gut reaction was when i found out, but hopefully i will never have to deal with that.one thing is for certain, lets say i didn't know that the baby was ill until after it came out i would never give it away then.after it is born it's my baby and i would feel an overwhelming love for it.but if my child was really ill, or deformed, and i don't mean that in a superficial way but think of John Merrick, more commonly known as the elephant man, wouldn't it have been better if someone had known before he was born?if i thought that my child would have such an unhappy life, either through teasing, or endless surgery and stays in hospital then i would consider aborting or maybe even switching off a life support machine.but it also depends on the defect.it would totally break my heart but my feelings would have to be about the welfare of my flesh and blood.it is a never ending debate that will go on until no babies are born with defects, but it could still be awhile before that perfect world is realised.

i would still always love my baby but this i guess is still showing love to it.

xx

Answer 4

I was asked through 3 out of 4 of my pregnancies if I wanted the tests that are supposed to show these so called defects up - when we asked what the rate was (to be correct) it was not high enough for us to risk, especially amniocentesis that can make the baby abort (even if it is healthy) so we declined. I know a lot of people might not agree but a child is a gift whatever it's make up - incidentally cerebral palsy is a condition that happens at birth & as far as I am aware there are no tests for this - my friends sister's 1st baby was born with CP but her 3 others after that were not!

Answer 5

no of course not that's just crazy a baby is special with a birth defect or not my twin sister has cerebral palsy and she can't walk by herself but she is the kindest person i know children like that are special God put them here for a reason even though people may not see that i think my sister has all ready changed many people's lives in her 14 years just by the way she has persevered throughout her surgery's and children with birth defects are allot stronger than normal children so i would continue the pregnancy

Answer 6

Absolutely not. I don't believe that I have the right to decide whether my baby should live or not - he/she is a human being and although their quality of life would maybe not be as good as a healthy child, who are we to say that the baby would rather not have the chance at life anyway? I'm 14 weeks pregnant at the moment and I didn't have the scan for downs syndrome etc, as I know that I wouldn't do anything whatsoever if I found out that my baby had downs, I would love and cherish the child just as much whether they were 'normal' or not. This is my personal belief, but I do recognise that not everyone feels the same themselves, so would not judge others who had a different view on it.

Answer 7

I have a daughter with spina bifida, I am against abortion, but I have to say if I had of known all the suffering that she was going to go through, and all the stress this disability was going to put on my family, then I would have had a termination, our whole life's are determined by her disability, she has no quality of life she just wants to sit in front of the television

Answer 8

That would be personal choice of the parents involved. Any child with those type of birth defects is going to take life long ongoing care, although to what degree is questionable. There is early testing to find out about these type of conditions and ending the pregnancy is a very personal choice.

Answer 9

It's a difficult one. The doctor can tell you your baby has this problem or that problem but they can't tell you how badly the child is affected until the child is born.
I have spina bifida occulta, and as much as it's not as bad as spina bifida my mum was given the option to abort.
I walk, I can look after myself, I did well at a mainstream school, I've given birth to two wonderful children and I'm fine.
My eldest daughter has a heart condition but never would I have aborted her.

xxxx

Answer 10

I depends on the defect. If i knew that the fetus, once its born, had no chance of growing up at all, then yes I would end the pregnancy. If Its going to be in pain for the entirety of its short life, then it would be inexplicably selfish and cruel of me to give birth to it. If it there was indeed a birth defect but a survivable one, like downs syndrome then I would continue the pregnancy. I would have to consider long and hard as to whether I was up to raising the child once it is born though.