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Down Syndrome shouldn't be eliminated · Head Shrink Inc.

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's Doc David with Head Shrink Inc., and another week, another episode.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: And today's episode is going to be a little bit different.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's going to be more related to a headline I just saw on the news.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're all in the drink.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're a lot related.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, Doc David with Head Shrink Inc.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so normally uh when I do these podcasts, I'm doing a topic about life choices or something to do with relationships, parenting, marriage, or things like that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: But today I saw a top a uh article, a headline actually, that kind of hit home for me, and I just wanted to talk about it um briefly today.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So CBS hasn't had an article up that they posted or a a uh headline that they posted.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: It says CBS touts um actually let me get to the actual um so they what they say on their Twitter feed is Iceland is on pace to virtually eliminate Down syndrome through abortion.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: So think about that statement for a minute.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Iceland is on pace to virtually eliminate Down syndrome through abortion, essentially basically uh hinting that Down syndrome is this thing uh that needs to be eliminated.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So most of the listener most of you listeners um don't know, but I actually have two daughters with Down syndrome.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So my I have one that's biologically mine that is uh six, and then another one that we adopted from Poland um that is five.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And um I saw this article and then I read through it and I saw all these comments that you know people had left in the Twitterverse and and I haven't even seen what comments people have done on Facebook.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I I it's it's crazy because I don't view and maybe it's because I'm r close up to it, like I'm right next to it, I don't view Down syndrome as something that um should be eliminated.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's be fair, I don't agree with abortion, I think abortion is murder, but um to simply say, well, your child has a diagnosis of Down syndrome, so you should abort, which Finland, Denmark, Iceland, France, those are all countries that have that are on track to eliminate um kids born with Down syndrome.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the stats I saw was like uh France is 77% um down syndrome free because when they get that diagnosis from amnio or or whatever tests they do, um typically they they they will abort the the baby.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so you know a lot of the comments on Twitter like Nazis practiced eugenics.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean this is eugenics really.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um the you know Iceland supports eugenics, uh people saying that um you know America struggles with neo-Nazis, Iceland is quietly bringing to life the Third Reich's eugenic fantasies.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there's like crazy things that people are saying on Twitter.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um but let me let me speak to this personally because I I mean it it makes me sad that people don't un fully understand um uh a life uh a living life with someone that has Down syndrome.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think most people generally uh interact with uh people with Down syndrome um first in a school setting.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so they they see a Down syndrome kid in the school setting where there's probably a lot of support around the Down syndrome kid.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so they don't fully realize what it's like to live in a family with somebody that has Down syndrome.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna I will not lie to you and say that it's always easy.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's not.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um But the thing is there's lots of things in life that aren't easy, and so you know, I think a proponent says, well, if you can choose to not have this in your life, then shouldn't you be able to choose that?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sure, I think you can choose to have any kind of um issue not be in your life related to, you know, if you if abortion is an option.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you uh see that there's a a child with no arm that you're carrying, you can abort that baby.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um or if you know that a kid's going to um have other some type of other chromosomal issue, you you can abort that baby.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's your choice.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess what I'm appealing to, I'm appealing to the person that is kind of on the fence that's thinking, well, Down syndrome, I'm not so sure about that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so then they choose to abort simply because they don't know anything about Down syndrome.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll be straight up with you.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: It is there are times that it's challenging.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um my youngest, well, my my biological child with Down syndrome, she had cancer, um leukemia, to be to be um to be factual, and that's not something that's like that's not super common with kids, but there's kids that ha don't have Down syndrome that have cancer.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um she survived it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: There's other kids that didn't have Down syndrome that I know that did not survive it.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was a challenge because she got put on life support, we thought we were gonna lose her, and and she toughed it out and survived.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um another challenge is that she and my youngest daughter with Down syndrome, they're not they can make sounds, they can speak words that they understand to themselves that make sense to them.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they're challenged with being able to speak, which they completely understand what we say, but when you ask them um to say words, that that's that's a challenge for them.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a challenge, just like people are born with challenges all the time, people struggle with challenges all the time with their children.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um the thing of have one of the things about having uh two daughters with Down syndrome and is that it's taught me a lot about myself.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I knew that I was a selfish guy when I had my typical kids, but um I really realized how selfish I was when I had my when I had my Down syndrome kids.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I and I realized how um unloving I can be.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that because kids with Down syndrome, one of the biggest aspects of kids with Down syndrome is that they just love people unabashedly.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so something could be done to them, you know, that kind of us typical people like, that's rude, how dare you treat me like that?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And a Down syndrome kid, they like look over that and they just love you.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I often say that I think um kids with Down syndrome is is a picture into what the world actually was supposed to be like.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um kind of this innocence and forgiveness and just loving.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if everyone was like my daughters, the world would be much a much better place to live.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um because people would not be hurting one another, they would just be getting along and loving one another.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's taught me a lot more about myself.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things that I've thought about when I think about people that want to eliminate Down syndrome, I think it's often like, well, it's for the good of the, you know, a person should be able to choose how they live, and which I don't necessarily disagree with, and it's for the benefit of society.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now that I disagree with.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't think it's the benefit of society to eliminate Down syndrome.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um the question I keep coming back is, I mean, do you want a life of convenience?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: So actually actually, if you want a life of convenience, then definitely um don't have any Down syndrome children or people in your life.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say if you want a life of convenience, don't have kids in your life.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um don't have anyone in your life that has any kind of physical handicap.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Don't have anyone in your life that has some type of special needs.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Don't have anyone in your life that is going to bring challenges to you at all if you want to have a life of convenience.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean I'm if I'm not doubting that.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to have life of convenience, go for it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: But like the you need to look at the bigger picture of that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's very self-centered and it eliminates a lot of it would eliminate a lot of people and things in your life if if your focus is on a life of convenience.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that you should consider is that if you are okay with um eliminating Down syndrome because it's a it's a chromosomal anomaly, um, it's not a big leap then to say, you know, your your parent that has Parkinson's, your parent that has Alzheimer's, the parent that ha the person that has cystic fibrosis, any number of those incurable diseases, um it's not a big leap to say at some point when you become an inconvenience as an elderly person, um your family should be able to do away with you.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that sounds outrageous, right?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: But that is happening in other countries with euthanasia.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, typically I think it happens where a person makes that choice themselves, but at some point, if you have Alzheimer's and you're just being taken care of in a facility and you have no none of your faculties around you, so that if you're put out into the world, you just couldn't function, um, what's to say that at some point a government system or people that are put in charge of you will say, you know what, you're just kind of eating up money here, so we're just going to, you know, end your life.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's people that actually believe that, and there's countries that actually practice that, and and it's called euthanasia.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't think it's gotten to the extreme where there's death factories or death panels, as you know, Sarah Palin said several years ago about Obamacare.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not a big leap if you if you say, you know what, this um diagnosis of Down syndrome is just we don't want that, that's inconvenient for people.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: It just it makes it just bothersome.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So then why then when you're dealing with a 70-year-old that has Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or some other um kind of issue, incurable issue?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: What's your argument for saying, well, no, that they're valuable, they can live?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you're just saying it just simply because, well, they're alive and they're a person, so they should be able to live regardless of their um, you know, uh Parkinson's or incurable disease, then why can't you also use that same argument to say, no, no, no, you shouldn't eliminate Down syndrome children simply because they have Down syndrome?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's a it's a it's not much of a leap.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of the things to consider.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you think that you should be eliminating children simply because they have Down syndrome, then why why wouldn't we say let's let let's eliminate uh people that have incurable diseases that are a burden to society?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that's what I feel like Iceland believes that they believe ch children with Down syndrome are a burden to society.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually don't believe that.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a large number of people that don't believe that they're a uh burden to society.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, there's the occasional person that's just a jerk that will come out and say it.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend actually that said to me, if you had to do it over again, wouldn't you just do it so different?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I I thought about that for a minute and I thought, no, actually I wouldn't.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's been hard, but I'm not I wouldn't be the person that I am today if it weren't for my two daughters with Down syndrome.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um if you have any questions or comments about that, I'd love to hear them.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can email me at headshrinkinc at gmail.com or you can go to Facebook Doc David and um comment there.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be posting this on there, and then you can let me know what you think.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.