Jivin J’s Life Links 9-20-10
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- Who’s more “extreme” on abortion: a candidate who favors partial-birth and tax-funded abortion or a candidate who is against abortion except in cases of life, rape and incest? For some reason, Virg Bernero thinks it’s the latter.
- Adult stem cell researcher Jean Peduzzi Nelson writes about some of the adult stem cell success stories she shared with a Senate committee last week.
- In the New York Times, Amy Julia Becker writes about why she decided not to screen her unborn child for Down Syndrome:
- Our daughter, who is now 4½, has Down syndrome. She was born when I was 28. Although there is no known cause for Down syndrome (the presence of an extra 21st chromosome), as soon as I conceived Penny [pictured below with younger brother, William], my chances of having another baby with Down syndrome increased significantly, from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 100. Those chances only increase further as I age.
- But my dread as I walked into the doctor’s office didn’t come from the thought that this new baby might have an extra chromosome… [but] from the prospect of talking to a doctor about prenatal testing. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends prenatal screening for Down syndrome for all pregnant women, regardless of age…. These tests accurately identify babies with Down syndrome 85% to 90% of the time.
- FOX News has an article on the abortion amendment in the defense budget bill:An amendment from Sen. Roland Burris, D–IL, to end a longstanding ban on abortions at U.S. military hospitals overseas is attached to the defense authorization bill set to come up for a vote in the Senate… [which] will meet Monday to resume consideration of the defense bill, with a vote to start formal debate set for the following day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated that even if the Senate clears that hurdle, which requires 60 votes, the defense bill likely will not come up for a final vote until after the November election.
We know the health complications associated with Down syndrome — heart defects, intestinal abnormalities, celiac disease, low muscle tone, developmental delays… more intensive one-on-one attention in the early years and more doctor’s visits throughout childhood. We know it brings with it more uncertainty as the child grows up.
But we also know that a textbook definition of a syndrome can never capture the reality of any particular human life….
I told myself that I wanted to know if the baby had a healthy heart. But the literature about the test explains that it is effective 90% of the time in detecting Down syndrome and only 40% of the time in detecting congenital heart defects. t wasn’t offering me a chance to know the physical health of my baby so much as providing me a choice about whether to continue my pregnancy if the baby had Down syndrome….
We declined prenatal testing not because we assume this baby in my womb has the typical 46 chromosomes. We declined prenatal testing because we would welcome another child with Down syndrome.
[Photo via Bloom]

Ok.
I heart Penny.
Oh, that little girl with down’s is so precious! It is so sickening- the thought that we systematically wipe those with downs out. Ironically, it is times like this that I get the most vindictive and begin to “look forward” to judgment day when those sick bastards who would destroy someone like her will get what is coming to them… Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner…
Bobby, I hear you.
A very good friend of mine has a son with Down’s. He is the most beautiful, loving, adorable child. He makes our lives so much richer and so wonderful; yes, it’s hard to care for him, but we all love him so much, my husband and I like to help take care of him (because mommy and daddy need to go on dates sometimes too!)…..None of us can imagine our lives without him.
I guess the kids with Down’s forces us parents to love ‘unconditionally’…the way love is supposed to be. The way God loves us….Never expecting anything in return.
What frightens me most, and saddens me most, about the pro-abortion community is they feel that children are RIGHTS, that they are something to GET, something they DESERVE. Children are people, with their own selves and their own rights, separate from the mother. Not only does the pro-abortion movement dehumanize an entire class of people, it seems to have unrealistic, and narcissistic expectations of children they believe they “deserve.” If your child isn’t “perfect,” then it’s perfectly okay to kill him. That is madness, it’s just madness.
If I get into Heaven at all it will be on my autistic son’s coattails. In so many ways he has been my salvation and the added measure of glue my marriage needed.
Marriage and children are the crucibles given to us by God to teach us how to love, and to burn off all the dross we accumulate in life.
As Dostoevsky said in The Brothers Karimozov:
“Brothers, love is a teacher, but a hard one to obtain: learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it. It takes hard work and a long apprenticeship, for it is not just for a moment that we must learn to love, but forever.”
Penny is a cutie pie!
I don’t understand why someone else would want to kill a child who MIGHT have Downs. Unless it has to do with expensive cars and trips to Europe….
Little Penny is sooooo cute. Next to her little brother, she becomes even cuter. Two cute kids, they are adorable. A definite argument against abortion. PERIOD.
Family friends of ours have two sons. The firstborn has Downs. They found out in her second trimester and the doctors made her miserable with pressure to abort. Being good Catholics they said NO!!!!! The little boy has extreme Downs but he is the sweetest, cutest little toddler today. And the grandmother told me that he is her favorite grandchild with a wink. She said “i know I shouldn’t have favorites but I do. He is my little cuddlebug.”
It still makes me mad that doctors added so much stress and pressure to my friend’s life while she was pregnant.
I can’t believe how cute Penny is. She’s so adorable, it’s making me smile. I want to squeeeeeeze her.
Two cute kids!