"What Your Doctor is Reading"

Click on the above title to look at a monthly summary of current medical literature aimed at the non-medical reading public.

It's interesting to note November's report includes a review of the early pre-natal tests for Down syndrome. Of course, there is the usual statement that early testing is important not just for abortion decisions, but to "prepare" moms for the fact that their child will be disabled, if they decide to continue the pregnancy.

The fact is that this latter option is simply included so that the speaker (be it the authors of the original study report or the author of the review-or both) can say that, of course, this early testing is not aimed at increasing the abortion rate for trisomy 21. The speakers would not want to be accused of having a hidden agenda, or presenting their information in such a way that they appear to be counseling prenatal testing as a darn good thing because it leads to earlier abortions.

However, there are, in this one little review, four sentences explaining how important this is for moms who want to abort early. And one sentence explaining how finding out early can help "prepare" for the birth.

Just an interesting observation.

mary