Joy and Love That Feeling Must Carry

¶ … joy and love that feeling must carry with it is tremendous. However, this can all come crashing down at the news that the child growing inside has just been diagnosed with Tay Sach's disease. The disease has no definitive cure, and this will ultimately result in the suffering and early death of that child you were just so excited about. What would you do? Would you continue the pregnancy knowing that your child would suffer an untimely death, or would you abort the pregnancy to save the grief and sorrow of watching your newborn child begin to fade and deteriorate away before your very eyes?

The issue of continuing a pregnancy knowing that the child has Tay Sach's disease is definitely a controversial one. On the one hand there is the personal guilt of aborting any child at all, but there is also the guilt about continuing a pregnancy that you know will result in an early death. Personally, I do not think I could be able to continue a pregnancy knowing that this poor child would only see a normal existence for around six months. The years of deterioration and then early death would seem much too unfair of a punishment for the innocent life. Knowing that there is no cure makes this decision even more definitive for me.

Yet, I still respect a couple's decision either way. That child is the responsibility of the parents who already love and care for it. I know many parents do not believe in abortion, and may have religious beliefs about why God may have allowed this to happen. Moreover, I know many parents might be hanging on to hope that all the innovation in medical technology may bring about some for of cure or treatment within the child's lifetime. Yet another reason would be the fact that even in their short lives, these children can still be loved enormously (Rapp 2012). From this perspective, even though I would not continue such a pregnancy, I would have to respect the couple's right to do so if that is what they would chose for their unborn child. I would just hope for the best and provide as much support for their decision as possible.

As such, it is imperative to help advocate a couple's right to choose to keep their child despite a diagnosis of Tay Sach's disease. Just as in the case of couple's who chose to have an abortion; these couples have rights as well. There are a number of people who will see these people as selfish and irrational, and so it is important to raise awareness about how this process will impact the couple's life and the child's as well.