Madeleine Teahan has narrated this article for you to listen to.
Many of us remember at least one morning in our childhoods when fate threw us some unexpected twist and we knew instantly that life would never be the same.
Mine came in July 1991, two months shy of my fifth birthday. I had just received the news from my aunt that my mum had gone into labour overnight; my siblings and I had a new sister. We were gleefully baking biscuits that morning when we heard my father’s car on the drive returning from the hospital. But someone almost unrecognisable walked into the kitchen; shell-shocked, with a ghostly pallor. Something was wrong.
We cannot legislate for the total eradication of suffering and it would be dangerous to try
Today, hundreds of women in the UK will discover they’re pregnant. Those who choose to keep their baby will be offered a blood test, usually at their 12-week scan. This will reveal how probable it is that their child has Down’s syndrome. For some women, the results of that test will cause them to end their pregnancy.
Abortion is legal in the UK for up to 24 weeks. The 1967 Act also states that abortion up to birth is permitted if ‘there is a substantial risk’ of abnormalities which would render the child ‘seriously handicapped’.
Around 90 per cent of babies found to have Down’s syndrome are believed to be aborted in the UK. Given the mounting evidence that the Down’s community is facing erasure, the law has recently been challenged in the courts by Heidi Crowter, a young woman who has the condition.
Crowter’s case was rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal, but now Sir Liam Fox MP – a committed advocate for the rights of those with Down’s syndrome – has tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill supporting it.
