Any parent's hardest choice
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
From Ms Rosamond Mahony
Sir: Regarding Claire Rayner's article today (Another View, 27 June) I too am sorry that the Lawsons are using their disappointment at the birth of a daughter with Down's syndrome as a stick to beat other, less fortunate parents with.
Ms Rayner is absolutely right when she says that the burden is enormous and many families are not as fortunate as the Lawsons have been in the Handicap Lottery. They have a child with Down's syndrome; some babies are diagnosed in utero as having dreadful abnormalities; and others face a life that is hardly a life at all, as did my own daughter. She was diagnosed as having a spina bifida and hydrocephalus so severe as to leave her paralysed and profoundly brain damaged. Had she survived birth she would have faced many tough and painful operations simply to allow her to exist.
My own anger at what the Lawsons are doing in their grief is immense. How can they be so unkind to other people facing the prospect of bringing up a profoundly handicapped child - and without many of the advantages the Lawsons have. The damage being done in the media regarding prenatal testing and termination is enormous.
Any parent faced with such news is devastated. Grasping the enormity of the situation can be hard, but every year brings advances in foetal testing, so that less invasive tests can be done at an earlier stage.
My own termination took place at 20 weeks. It was a very sad and unpleasant experience which I chose only in preference to what my daughter would have had to face had she survived.
Choosing for your own child to die is the hardest choice any parent ever has to face, and one which is taken out of love for the child.
May I wish the Lawsons well in the decision they have made and request that other parents should be given respect by the media and society in their decision to allow their babies to die. The parents of such children should not be made to feel that they have done something morally reprehensible.
Yours etc,
Rosamond Mahony
Farnham,
Hampshire
27 June
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments