pathology entails. Many parents would choose to
have an abortion if they find out, through genetic
prenatal testing, that their fetus is affected by TCS.
However, genetic prenatal tests for TCS are usually
taken only if there is a family history of the disease.
Sometimes, though, the disease is caused by a gene
mutation that intervenes in the gametes of
a healthy member of the couple. Moreover, tests for
TCS are quite expensive and it takes several weeks
to get the result. Considering that it is a very rare
pathology, we can understand why women are not
usually tested for this disorder.
However, such rare and severe pathologies are
not the only ones that are likely to remain unde-
tected until delivery; even more common congen-
ital diseases that women are usually tested for
could fail to be detected. An examination of 18
European registries reveals that between 2005 and
2009 only the 64% of Down’s syndrome cases were
diagnosed through prenatal testing.
2
This
percentage indicates that, considering only the
European areas under examination, about 1700
infants were born with Down’s syndrome without
parents being aware of it before birth. Once these
children are born, there is no choice for the parents
but to keep the child, which sometimes is exactly
what they would not have done if the disease had
been diagnosed before birth.
ABORTION AND AFTER-BIRTH ABORTION
Euthanasia in infants has been proposed by
philosophers
3
for children with severe abnormali-
ties whose lives can be expected to be not worth
living and who are experiencing unbearable
suffering.
Also medical professionals have recognised the
need for guidelines about cases in which death
seems to be in the best interest of the child. In The
Netherlands, for instance, the Groningen Protocol
(2002) allows to actively terminate the life of
‘infants with a hopeless prognosis who experience
what parents and medical experts deem to be
unbearable suffering’.
4
Although it is reasonable to predict that living
with a very severe condition is against the best
interest of the newborn, it is hard to find definitive
arguments to the effect that life with certain
pathologies is not worth living, even when those
pathologies would constitute acceptable reasons for
abortion. It might be maintained that ‘even
allowing for the more optimistic assessments of the
potential of Down’s syndrome children, this
potential cannot be said to be equal to that of
a normal child’.
3
But, in fact, people with Down’s
syndrome, as well as people affected by many other
severe disabilities, are often reported to be happy.
5