To birth, or not to birth...

If there's a more controversial issue for prospective parents than the fallout from in-utero genetic testing, I'd love to hear it.

The last time I raised a similar hot-button topic... the excrement really hit the air-conditioning.

Fool that I am, I've decided to do it again...

-- DETROIT -- Until this year, only pregnant women 35 and older were routinely tested to see if their fetuses had the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome.

Under a new recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, doctors have begun to offer a new, safer screening procedure to all pregnant women, regardless of age.

About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.

Now, I should mention here, that as parents having a first child in our late thirties, my wife and I opted for amniocentesis... which screens for the most common genetic disorders.

Fortunately, the tests all came back normal and we weren't forced to make that terrible choice.

My personal feeling at the time, was that bringing a disabled child into the world would have been a mistake. Even if you get past the medical, emotional and financial issues... you're still faced, at some point, with the reality that, after you are gone, your child will be left alone in the world and very possibly institutionalised.

Of course, not everyone sees it that way.

Convinced that more couples would choose to continue their pregnancies if they better appreciated what it meant to raise a child with Down syndrome, a growing group of parents is seeking to insert their own positive perspectives into a decision often dominated by daunting medical statistics and doctors who feel obligated to describe the difficulties of life with a disabled child.

They are pressing obstetricians to send them couples who have been given a prenatal diagnosis and inviting prospective parents into their homes to meet their children.

I guess I'm curious where people, particularly people with strong religious convictions, which I should reiterate, I do not have... fall on this issue.

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UPDATE: The Pope weighs in

Even before Benedict got off his plane in Brazil, he stoked a debate among Catholics who have been arguing whether politicians who approve abortion legislation as well as doctors and nurses who take part in the procedure subject themselves to automatic excommunication under church doctrine.

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