Table of Contents
PBH203H: Health of the Child
review this website:
https://www.everylifecounts.ie/
Premature Birth
Amazing story: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/3/0-chance-of-survival-worlds-most-premature-twins-defy-doctors-740148
Had to fight to get medical care at this extremely early stage
Ablism: Non-Terminal Disability Issues
- amniocentisis, pre-natal screening, eugenics
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- stats on down syndrome and abortion (90-100%)
- Microcephaly (Zika virus)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvIbKQdNBvV/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Terminal/Life Threatening Prognoses
- Terminal/bleak prognosis
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- Story of Grace and the founding of the organization, Carrying to Term:https://carryingtoterm.org/stories/stephanie-and-andy-story/
- https://www.dyingtomeetyou.com/p/she-who-brings-happiness?fbclid=IwAR1GLE4dzfBrPYQLnwcAwITi5DKBz4caeDg_c6wCqrrDKMNBFT6XEeZHgyk John Serafini, whose daughter Beatrice had anencephaly and died 38 minutes after birth
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John also mentioned that he found the term “life-limiting condition” better language compared to some of the alternatives he heard throughout their experience. “But,” he stressed, “it’s important to remember that all of our lives have ‘limiting conditions.’”
- Trisomy 18 (Edward's Syndrome) - Eliot
- Eliot's legacy: 99 Balloons and Matt Mooney details from 2016 Toronto visit…
- Bonus: Jaxton's story
- Trisomy 13 - Thomas
- need a shorter version of this to share it in a seminar
- Potter's Syndrome - Matthew
- from Blaise's personal notes, if his mom gives permission
Dialogue:
- Clarifying question: Do you support abortion in any situation, or only in these situations?
- Trot out the Toddler:
- If there's an inconsistency, then it's a classic pre-born human rights case of establishing the humanity of pre-born children
- If they bite the bullet, then it's really abortion as euthanasia and it's QUIT apologetics
- Bleak prognosis for the child: Stephanie Gray offers a conversation approach
(until 35:39) –> When we have a short amount of time left with a loved one, why would we cut that short time even shorter?
- in dialogue, this line of questioning tends to work really well because if it's a heart issue, the Q is powerful for addressing the heart, and if it's a head issue re: status of the fetus, it will be easy to re-direct back to basic apologetics
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- “Simply, we were not going to be the cause of our daughter's death. Her death would already be a source of suffering, we would not add to her suffering by means of abortion…Who would we be to have denied her life and not given her that chance to meet and be loved by her family?”
Uncertain Prognoses
- Brandan Bosma and Mosiac Trisomy 18
- Remember Trisomy 18, and how it's always terminal?
- narrow down the time range for a shorter excerpt
- Brandon's personal introduction
- He goes through the dehumanizing ways in which medical professionals and textbooks refer to people with trisomy 13 or trisomy 18 (e.g. “may develop personality”)
- Down Syndrome stats (5min)
- What the medical community has said about other people living with mosiaic trisomy 18 (~10min?)
- dehumanizing clinic images that pathologize people, instead of photos of trisomy kids with their families
- Doctors often tell parents: “no survivors” - yet just look on social media and at the SOFT community and you can see the survivors
- Dr. Will Johnson: “When you only see death as a solution you throw creativity out the window.”
- OR
- “hole in his heart” - but all he needed was a heart surgery after birth
- He faced such discrimination from medical professionals who felt his cause was hopeless and that he was doomed
- his comparison to poor outcomes from Trisomy 21 50 years ago, until care improved… medical discrimination
- CPL conference, and medical student saying, “We learned last week that Trisomy 18 is always terminal, yet here you are standing here talking to us”