{"id":298754,"date":"2023-09-15T18:37:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T23:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=298754"},"modified":"2023-09-14T17:17:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T22:17:58","slug":"study-doctors-down-syndrome-diagnoses-negativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/study-doctors-down-syndrome-diagnoses-negativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Study reveals doctors still present Down syndrome diagnoses with negativity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> recently published in the Journal of Disability and Health shows that despite decades of positive societal progress for people with Down syndrome, the majority of doctors have a negative bias when informing parents of this prenatal diagnosis. <\/span><\/p>\n

The study surveyed parents of children with Down syndrome about their experience of prenatal testing. Most said that the diagnosis was presented in a negative light, with an \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d and little information given about the condition. The study found that often medical providers have \u201can implicit bias when [making assumptions about] life with a disability like Down syndrome.\u201d This could be a contributing factor to the high rate of abortion chosen by parents who receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome during prenatal testing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy Julia Becker, a well known Christian author, wrote about this study and her own experience of having a child with Down Syndrome in an article for Time Magazine<\/span><\/a>. Becker and her husband found out their daughter Penny had Down syndrome when she was born, not as a result of prenatal testing. <\/span><\/p>\n

She recounts how the doctor told her husband: \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d the doctor said. \u201cYour baby has the features of Down syndrome.\u201d They were sent home with little information on what this meant and Penny\u2019s prognosis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Other parents have reported similar experiences, such as <\/span>Mark Cronin<\/span><\/a>, father of John Cronin. They were also given the \u201cbad news\u201d of a Down syndrome diagnosis when he was born \u2014 and no other information.<\/span><\/p>\n