If you knew that your child would be born severely retarded and would die by the age of 5, would you decide t?

Question

If you knew that your child would be born severely retarded and would die by the age of 5, would you decide t?

Answer 1

well thats a call that would take time to decide because if it were me i would want to think of what would be better for my baby i dont know if i would want them in pain for 5 years so its something i would have to think about alot and think and do research and talk to other parents that have has the same thing and ask them questions because only someone who has truly been in that situation can answer you they have been through it   hope it helps

Answer 2

Abort? Yes.

In my opinion, to do otherwise would be very selfish.

Answer 3

To abort...yes I would. I'd love to say I wouldn't and would cherish that 5 years. Being realistic, I couldn't do that though. To have them suffer for 5 years just to die anyways, I wouldn't be able to watch that unfold. I'd rather live with having to look myself in the mirror knowing I killed the baby. Sick question man...seriously.

Answer 4

That is a very hard question.  I have a special needs child..he has autism which, while not life threatening, certainly has a long term impact on not only his life, but on the life of my entire family.  Even as an adult, he will continue to need care and supervision, impacting some of the choices and options many parents would have once a child is chronologically an adult.  I have also known several families who faced the very question you asked, had the child and watched that child suffer and die.  Medical issues compounded the developmental ones and these children had a life filled with extended hosptial stays, physical pain, transfusions and other invasive treatments..certainly not the qaulity of life most of us would ever choose for our children.  Yet knowing all of that, unless the testing showed that the medical issues were of a severity in that the child could not live without intense medical support and intervention, or that I was at severe risk physically from continuing the pregnancy (and that is simply because I could not risk my life because I do have other children) I would most likely continue the pregnancy...or at least like to think I would.  I support every woman's right to choose what is best for herself, her family and her child, but for myself the choice would be to carry the child.

Answer 5

I think you would have to put serious thought into it but if it was me I would go ahead with the birth , I couldnt end its life not knowing what he/she would be like . You could give a a lot of love to that child in 5 years.

Answer 6

It would have to 100% no doubt in any doctors mind or mine along with several different doctors opinions... I am against abortion, but I think under those cirrcumstances, I would feel obligated to not make my child suffer.  It would have nothing to do with ME personally because if it did, I absolutely would not ever think of it having an abortion and I would just want my child to live  BUT  I DO NOT believe the whole thing of "Oh its a womans body, its a womans life its her choice." I think that a fetus is a seperate person and should be taken into consideration... and with that person comes a life and that life needs to be taken into consideration as well. I have watched too many people suffer and WANT to die because of their suffering that I could not do that to my child. I would probably lay down and die afterwards, but yes I would.

Answer 7

When something like this happens, you can embrace it and see what it makes of you, or you can reject it and go on being the same person, for better or worse. A very hadicapped child is a tremendous burden on both of his or her parents and on the family as a whole, so in some ways it would be easier if one knew the child was only going to live five years: there would be a fixed limit to the mayhem.

When my severely disabled daughter was born, I was annoyed with the nurses for encouraging me to love her. Why love someone who was clearly going to die very soon? But of course I could not help loving her, and I am glad I did. She may have only lived three weeks but she changed me for the better, and she made me a better mother for my subsequent children. Who knows what the long-term effects of her life will be? We cannot judge the worth of a life by its length.  I am not sorry she is dead, because her life was painful, but I am not sorry she lived, either.

Answer 8

I am assuming the rest of your question would be would I decide to abort.  NO I WOULD NOT.   For a lot of people you are most likely wondering how could I let a child come into the world knowing that she/he would be retarded and die by the age of 5. My question to you would be, who are we to play God?  First of all, I know a few women that have been told their children would not live, or be severely retarded and the are what we would call very normal.  But even if my child was born retarded and did die at 5, I could never take the life of my baby. No matter how long a child or person has on earth to live, that child has a heart beat at 3 weeks after conception- and I consider it murder.

EDIT-  I must add that I would not like to see my child suffer for those 5 years, but I also could not live with myself if I took the life of my child.  I can understand that people will disagree but I don't understand how you can fault me for not wanting to stop the heart of my baby.

Answer 9

Get an abortion?

Yes, I would rather have her/him die and not have suffered then suffered her/his short life then die.