If a doctor told you your unborn child has a 99% chance of severe down syndrome, to the point where they would need constant care until the day they die. Do you think it's ethical to abort?
2026-07-11 20:30 UTC
Replies (37)
-
@Eczpurt@lemmy.world 2026-07-11 20:44
Can’t really say for part 1 but for part 2 it’s definitely not abortion anymore after birth so that is unethical in my opinion.
-
@DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2026-07-11 20:49
If it’s ethical to abort just because you don’t want the kid (and it is), then it’s ethical to abort for any reason.
-
@Brokkr@lemmy.world 2026-07-11 21:11
Would it be ethical to knowing give someone a 99% chance of a severe illness within a few months?
-
@holy_scroller@lemmy.zip 2026-07-11 21:16
I don’t know about the ethics, but forcing people to carry to term a baby with a significant developmental disability is unconscionable to me. It is very likely to ruin their marriage, finances, sanity, life, but the people that manage to do it are saints.
-
@Fishnoodle@lemmy.world 2026-07-11 21:32
Bye Felicia
-
@BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.ml 2026-07-11 21:33
It’s kinda besides the point. If a woman wants an abortion she should get an abortion. Downs syndrome or not, it doesn’t matter.
-
@Buffalobuffalo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-07-11 21:34
Abort whenever for whatever.
-
@Maeve@kbin.earth 2026-07-11 22:07
Yes, and infanticide is illegal.
-
@Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz 2026-07-11 23:17
Have you guys spent much time around people with Down’s syndrome? It’s typically not a uniform “life of suffering” like what many comments seem to be assuming. It’s fair enough to try to imagine how you would feel if you had a certain disability, but never assume you’re right about that, you might be surprised. Especially with intellectual differences, I don’t think you can really know what it would be like to be that person.
-
@cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2026-07-12 00:15
all children require constant care of you’re not willing to so that with people with disabilities then you’re just a eugenic
-
@HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2026-07-12 00:59
Yes.
-
@NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 01:47
I think it’s ethical to abort if your fetus is perfectly healthy.
-
@spittingimage@lemmy.world 2026-07-12 02:02
Without doubt. Part 2: nope. Get used to changing babies.
-
@umbrella@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 06:57
how is severe downs defined? i thought it was an either/or thing. and they seem to be perfectly content with themselves? interesting dilemma though, what is the limit between “who cares” and “this person probably suffers too much”? one could probably think of a few shitty situations to be born in and when judging by this lens, shouldn’t the person decide if they have the faculties to express it? what if they don’t?
-
@edel@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 12:43
There are many factors to take this decision, but mainly in how long in the term is the fetus and the resources situation of the family (work, economic, external support, their health, etc). In an ideal world though, induced abortion should not exist since it is the society who should completely support, and adaptively to the children’ special needs, but when society fails at that and, so far, #all societies are, it is the family and doctor the only ones who should only make the decision on a fetus. The only argument today should be when a fetus becomes a human. We should treasure far more families that dedicate more than the usual percentage of resources to take care of their weakest of their members (children or parents) than basically anyone else in society like we do with youtubers, sport players, oligarchs, politicians, etc.
-
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world 2026-07-12 14:38
let me flip the question: if you KNEW the child you were going to conceive had the same chance of the same condition, would you still have sex? if you’d skip it, then i see no issues with an abortion. we don’t have foresight, but we do have hindsight. how we use it is important. nobody gets asked if they want to be alive. how dare anyone bring someone into a life of pain without their consent?
-
@BCsven@lemmy.ca 2026-07-12 21:10
Doctor wouldn’t know how severe. Down syndrome is regular DNA but one extra copy that interferes randomly with the building of the body. Every kid is different. The doctor told us the fetus might have issues based on growth. We didn’t care. My son was born with down syndrome. The doctor we had said he may not talk much, may not move much, etc. He will talk your ear off. He graduated highschool with a modified plan. Got the Phys Ed award in the regular grade 12 program. He reads, writes, excels at video editing and PowerPoint creation, excellent at figuring out technical stuff to a degree. Highly social and works partime. His birth showed me that acedemics aren’t as important as enjoying life for what it is.
-
@marcie@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 21:40
I think it’s ethical to abort any baby. It’s parasitic on the host, if you don’t consent to the idea how is it any worse than a flu.
-
@Faux@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 22:20
It’s not ethical to not abort the pregnancy in this case. There is nothing wrong with getting rid of the fetus, there is everything wrong with letting a person disabled to this stage from the start emerge. About part 2: I think euthanasia is ethical in this case. Certainly more ethical than emotional blackmail with “unborn child”.
-
@beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-07-12 22:32
What you’re asking about is eugenics. People with downs syndrome can lead rewarding lives. Many people who work with those of us with downs say that they have the highest satisfaction with life of anyone out there. They do require a lot of costly and time consuming care in early life, but there is no reason a child born with downs can’t have a life they find fulfilling. Given that, I would say if a mother’s only reason for aborting is the downs syndrome, that probably leans towards unethical. However if there are any other reasons a mother might choose to abort that fetus, it’s ethical. But terminating a pregnancy because the child has an “undesirable” trait is both eugenics and ableism which rarely result in ethical decision making.
-
@AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 2026-07-12 23:23
As fucked up as it sounds, if it’s early enough that there isn’t any chance of it being considered alive, I’d let the family decide whether or not to do it on their own because not every family is capable of that type of constant care and/or affording the bill to pay someone to help. As for a week after birth, as fucked up as it sounds, if you truly cannot afford the constant care, then probably putting them up for adoption to a family that can afford the care is better, IMO, than not being able to afford to care for said child and having potentially seeing them die from lack of care you cannot afford. Sometimes you need to make hard decisions to keep afloat financially.
-
@sangeteria@lemmy.ml 2026-07-12 23:29
I remember discussing this in an undergrad biomedical ethics class. Pls don’t ask us to do ur homework lmao Jury was still out by the end of class discussion btw. This one was complicated lol
-
@weps@lemmy.world 2026-07-13 01:26
sure, even after birth zero ethical dilemma for me
-
@AlHouthi4President@lemmy.ml 2026-07-13 02:46
Every human has an innate right to access Healthcare and this involves prenatal care for expectant mother’s. Mother’s should have access to screenings for a variety of chromosomal issues some of which are literally incompatible with life and the baby will not live more than a few days if at all. Mothers should also have access to post-natal care. Children with disabilities deserve to have access to Healthcare and education. It is the United States, the UK, France, “israel” and their NATO nazi allies that jave worked to systematically deny most human beings on earth from having access to basic levels of healthcare and education. Additionally these fascist colonial entities have imposed destruction that causes more children to be born with significant disabilities. Look at what happened to children born in Iraq after the US invasion. What is happening to Children born in Gaza today. I am sure there are many such examples in history.
-
@HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-07-13 03:40
Part 1: Yeet Part 2: Looks like I’m down with the sickness.
-
@racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 2026-07-13 11:20
What else does it bring if I keep the one-week-old baby alive but suffering to not only himself but all people around him: parents, grandparents, annoyed neighbours, teachers in special schools, eventually indifferent docters? If it’s guaranteed Hitler will do what he will do, will you kill infant Hitler when you travel back in time? The example in part 2 is just a milder Hitler.
-
@BrickEater@lemmy.world 2026-07-13 13:18
Yes.
-
@NahMarcas@lemmy.ml 2026-07-13 13:30
We part, we choice
-
@jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 2026-07-13 14:26
I think that this decision is taken by the mother, and no one else.
-
@IWW4@lemmy.zip 2026-07-13 14:55
GOD YES!!!
-
@Xella@lemmy.world 2026-07-13 15:14
Part 1: yes, abort Pat 2: you’d have to be blind to not see that your child has down syndrome for a week. Not much you can do at this point outside of putting the child in the system to be abused and abandoned or murdering it so this is the point where I become stuck with a mentally challenged child.
-
@daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-07-13 15:57
Every time you don’t want to have a kid for whatever reason is ethical to abort. What’s not ethical is to have a child you don’t really want.
-
@Zephyr@sh.itjust.works 2026-07-13 16:07
These are always technology problems more than moral problems. The issue is our technology is too shit currently to fix the genetic disease. Same with abortion generally. If we had artificial wombs then we could even have late term abortions and birth the child to be adopted and yes there is a shortage of babies to be adopted.
-
@uberdroog@lemmy.world 2026-07-13 16:22
Yes
-
@thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2026-07-13 20:18
Killing your unborn baby is still killing. If the child can grow up, live a live, see parents, have friends and laugh, then it is unethical to abort.
-
@Juice@midwest.social 2026-07-13 20:55
This is a decision made by the pregnant person, informed by her/their doctor. I can also see her/their family having some input in informing the pregnant person’s decision, to the extent that they are not being coerced by their family. As far as outside agents, such as ourselves, are involved, pregnancy is a medical issue. This is the only responsible way for society to handle these questions. Society is able to provide support for parents, esp those who are caretakers of children with severe disabilities, and we can improve education and access to contraceptives. But it is irresponsible and unethical to become involved in the medical decisions of others under any circumstances. If we really care about unborn children we should care doubly about born children and the families who take on the responsibility of ensuring those disabled individuals are able to experience love and joy. Trying to collapse ethics and morals into pure individual choice is a scam.
-
@BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 2026-07-18 19:28
Abortion is fine no matter what, but in particular for this case yes; Down’s syndrome isn’t the almond eyed happy somewhat simple child that Facebook memes make it out to be. They can have awful congenital heart disease, they have a much larger chance of getting leukemia, and they age seemingly twice as fast, a Down’s syndrome person in their forties is incredibly frail. They’re happy enough people and can often enjoy a good quality of life, there’s a guy who is a bartender in Buffalo at a Mexican restaurant who makes amazing drinks, for one, and there’s nothing wrong with having a child with Down’s if you want, but if you find out you are pregnant with a baby with Down’s you really should see medical genetics and have a fetal echo and maternal fetal medicine and ensure you make a decision that works for you. There are Down’s syndrome babies who never leave the hospital because of the comorbidities.