{"id":43139,"date":"2013-11-25T07:56:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T12:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=43139"},"modified":"2016-09-08T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T19:48:12","slug":"doctors-explanation-of-disability-risks-in-unborn-children-can-be-misleading-author-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-explanation-of-disability-risks-in-unborn-children-can-be-misleading-author-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor&#8217;s explanation of disability risks in unborn children can be misleading, author says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-27251\" alt=\"3d-ultrasound-fetus-baby2\" src=\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/3d-ultrasound-fetus-baby2-300x230.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/3d-ultrasound-fetus-baby2-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/3d-ultrasound-fetus-baby2.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In an article I wrote back in March, I spoke about the <a href=\"\/news\/parents-of-unborn-babies-with-disabilities-often-experience-great-pressure-to-abort\/\" target=\"_blank\">pressure<\/a> that doctors often put on the parents of disabled unborn babies to abort.<\/p>\n<p>One study cited in that article found that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230; [d]espite the shock and grief they may experience upon hearing the news of a fetal anomaly, the pregnant woman and her partner are usually urged to make the decision to terminate quickly. Behind the urgency is the physician\u2019s desire to avoid complications of \u2018late\u2019 terminations of pregnancy. Because of the delays involved in amniocentesis, abortions may occur in the second and even third trimester pregnancy. In health care settings, the issue of such late abortions has raised ethical and legal questions. In one early study, most of the terminations occurred within 72 hours of the woman receiving the news of the abnormality. This hardly allows time for the couple to become informed about parenting children born with that anomaly and thus considering carrying through with the pregnancy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I was reading a book called <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/All-Gods-Mistakes-Counseling-Pediatric\/dp\/0226066827\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1385320899&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=God%E2%80%99s+Mistakes%3A+Genetic+Counseling+in+a+Pediatric+Hospital\" target=\"_blank\">All God\u2019s Mistakes: Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital<\/a> <\/em>by Charles L Bosk.<\/p>\n<p>Bosk interviewed counselors who met with pregnant women and their partners and talked to them about the risks of having a disabled child. The author also attended some of these counseling sessions. Sometimes the counselors would meet with the parents after amniocentesis had determined that the baby had a health problem. Other times they met after the test was inconclusive.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Then there were cases where the parents carried a gene for a genetic illness, but there was no test available to detect whether the baby was affected. In these cases, the counselors were supposed to give the parents information about the risks to the child and let them decide whether or not to abort. There was the possibility that if they chose to abort, they would be killing a healthy child.<\/p>\n<p>The author notes how counselors explained the risks to couples:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2026 the very fact that risks can be expressed in numeric form allows counselors, if they choose, to merely pass information on to clients in an objective fashion; for example, \u201cThe normal population risk is 3%. Your risk is 6%.\u201d\u2026 Such risk statements without elaboration are rare\u2026 For example, consider the difference between the following statements, each of which is correct: \u201cYour risk is 3% greater than that of the general population\u201d and \u201cYour risk is double that of the general population.\u201d Risk statements of the latter form are more common than bare, unelaborated numbers, despite the counselors\u2019 commitment to not intruding on the privacy of patient decision-making.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This quote shows that the way statistics are stated has a huge impact on the message conveyed. Saying. \u201cThe risk is two times greater\u201d vs. \u201cThe risk is 3% more\u201d puts two completely different spins on the data. It could have a profound impact on couples\u2019 perception of risk and, therefore, their decision whether or not to abort. It is disturbing to read that the counselors used the \u201c2x greater\u201d phrasing much of the time. One wonders how many couples choose to abort thinking that the risk of having a disabled child is much greater than it actually is.<\/p>\n<p>Why do the counselors phrase risk this way? One possibility is that they are biased towards abortion because of \u201cwrongful life\u201d suits sometimes aimed at medical facilities and doctors after the births of disabled children.<\/p>\n<p>It is unknown as to whether this way of stating risk is common among medical personnel, but parents should be aware that what doctors say can be misleading, and, if faced with a baby who has a possible genetic disability, it is important to do more research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an article I wrote back in March, I spoke about the pressure that doctors often put on the parents of disabled unborn babies to abort. One study cited in that article found that: &#8230; [d]espite the shock and grief they may experience upon hearing the news of a fetal anomaly, the pregnant woman and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":24344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Doctor&#039;s explanation of disability risks in unborn children can be misleading, author says - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-explanation-of-disability-risks-in-unborn-children-can-be-misleading-author-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor&#039;s explanation of disability risks in unborn children can be misleading, author says - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an article I wrote back in March, I spoke about the pressure that doctors often put on the parents of disabled unborn babies to abort. 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