Alaska Governor Walks the Walk: Gives Birth to Down Baby
Labels: Down Syndrome. Eugenic Abortion.
I don't like to comment about issues involving individual family matters, but this is an exception: Alaska Governor Sara Palin and her husband have welcomed a new baby with Down syndrome into the world. From the story:The doctor's announcement in December, when Palin was four months pregnant, presented her with a possible life- and career-changing development. "I've never had problems with my other pregnancies, so I was shocked," said Palin, a mother of four other children. "It took a while to open up the book that the doctor gave me about children with Down syndrome, and a while to log on to the Web site and start reading facts about the situation."
The 44-year-old governor waited a few days before telling her husband, Todd, who was out of town, so she could understand what was ahead for them. Once her husband got the news, he told her: "We shouldn't be asking, 'Why us?' We should be saying, 'Well, why not us?'"
There was never any doubt the Palins would have the child, and on April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin. "We've both been very vocal about being pro-life," Palin said. "We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential."
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:15 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
A reader wrote: Hi-
Thanks for your comments on this story. As the parent of a son with Down syndrome, I was very happy to hear the news that the Palins had a newborn with Ds. NOT because I *want* kids to have Ds, but because I believe that they shouldn’t be killed simply because of a prenatal diagnosis of Ds.
I enjoy reading your blog..I just have one suggestion for this article, if you don’t mind. Please put the person before the diagnosis. Trig (like any other baby with a congenital condition) is a baby first..*he* is not ‘down syndrome”, he *has* down syndrome….to reflect this, your headline could have said ‘ Alaska Governor Walks the Walk…Gives Birth to a Baby with Down Syndrome.’ A small change, but it makes a big difference to parents who want their kids to be seen as people, not just a diagnosis.
Thanks for all that you do."
Another reader wrote:
"Thank you for posting the story about our country's Alaskan governor and her husband and their new baby.
I had not known it was to be a Down Syndrome child and had only read in passing that she had given birth, period.
Stories as this not only give encouragement to others, but hopefully reach into some minds deeply enough to at least get them thinking critically about their own attitudes of self-serving pragmatism or "easiest way out".
By contrast, last week, a woman came to the gate of this little shelter with a stray puppy, and asked if it could be taken in. It seems she is not only dealing with her husband's final stages of lung cancer but also is caregiver for a young multiply-handicapped woman; yet she was concerned about a stray dog.
I like to think that, as long as there are such people as these on the earth, it is not going anywhere in a hand-basket any time soon."
Thanks for your notes. I wanted to be sure that I named Trig, for the very purpose of humanizing him. I understand your point. I have never seen much of a difference between "disabled people" and "people with disabilities," but I try to remember that the latter is preferred for the reason the write mentioned.
I agree with the second writer fully.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home