Getting a child, with this thesis recently a teacher has triggered a debate, is in some ways selfish. Man wants to reproduce and pass on his genes. Maybe he does not want to be alone when he gets older. The total population on earth is high and resources are becoming scarcer. Instead of adopting, many parents prefer to have their own children.
Knowing whether a child is ill or healthy, whether or not it has a disability is to some extent selfish: Expectant parents want to know what they need to be prepared for in the next few years, how much time they need to invest in it Child, possibly also how much money. It is also about the stability of a relationship and emancipation: For many women, it is still difficult to reconcile children with the profession at all.
Parents then decide, if appropriate, for or against, to have a child who is likely to be dependent on them for a long time.
That is their right, because science makes it possible. Since the 1970s, a woman has had an amniocentesis check to see if her child has a genetic defect. In this study, the risk of miscarriage increases. Their costs are covered by the health insurance if the woman fulfills the criteria of a high-risk pregnancy, that is, if there are pre-existing conditions or if she is over 35.
Paying the blood test or not - the question is medical
Since 2012, a woman can demonstrate the same in a blood test. This test is minimally invasive and therefore safer to investigate. But he is rarely paid by the health insurance.
So, the question is first and foremost medical and easy to answer: if you pay for an invasive test that increases the risk of miscarriage, you also need to pay for a less risky test. The latest medical stand should be accessible to all people equally. He can not be banned any more anyway.
Instead, the debate in the Bundestag is fundamentally and very emotionally about something quite different. Namely, whether testing for trisomy is a form of selection that contradicts the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It is argued that much of the trisomy children are aborted. (In fact, these figures are not robust and vary between 65 and 90 percent.) It is suggested that people with Down syndrome get the feeling that society would not want to absorb them.
There will always be a "right to not know"
However, knowing about something does not automatically lead to a decision against it. The takeover of the test makes it compulsory for every woman. There will always be a "right to not know".
Some say that the blood test puts pressure on women to choose a child with Down syndrome because it is not welcome in society. Because everyone wants to have a "perfect" child and a child with a genetic defect means "suffering". Many pregnant women feel a similar pressure when they decide against a child of desire because it has trisomy and they are not up to the task.
But it is her decision. To help them, there is a range of counseling services that they can and must - if they want to abort.
Activist with Down syndrome: "Are you afraid of us?"
"Are you afraid of us?", This question by Nathalie Dedreux, an activist with Downsyndrom, was quoted in the Bundestag by the Green Corinna Rüffer. It is an important question that answers an open, humane society with "no" - and the consequences of which it must debate. But knowledge is not discriminatory.