Liberal Eugenics?

There's a very interesting discussion going around the 'sphere right now regarding the morality, and proper nomenclature, of the fact that we are rapidly eliminating serious, but not fatal, genetic abnormalities like Downs syndrome in America through the unsystematic but increasing use of selective abortion. Ross started the debate. Ezra responded, and then each of them has posted once more on the subject.

I have a view on this which is highly informed by my personal situation. I'm a carrier of Tay-Sachs disease, which, along with the nose, the curly hair, and the general lack of athleticism is one of more treasured inheritances from my Ashkenazi Jewish lineage. It's a so-called recessive-fatal disease, which means that if you carry one allele for it, you are completely asymptomatic and healthy. If you carry both alleles for it (in other words, if both of your parents were carriers and you lost the 1-in-4 lottery) then you are born lacking a crucial enzymatic function in your brain and you die a slow, horrible death by about the age of 2.

So for me, I am very very very very very glad for the existence of genetic tests and 'therapeutic abortion'. If I happen to have kids someday with someone who is also a carrier, any child we produce has that 1-in-4 chance of having a short, excruciating life. Ross can say anything he wants about the sin of abortion, but if there is a God, and he is putting babies on this earth to suffer through two extremely unpleasant years of life and then die, I fail to see any reason to acknowledge God's moral authority on the subject of abortion, at least in this case.

Now, of course, Downs is not a fatal disease. As Brian Beutler points out, a pretty strong case can be made that it qualifies as 'medically disastrous', based on the shortened lifespans and mental and physical ailments suffered by Downs babies, and also the high level of financial expense encountered by their parents. But there are countless examples of parents who, in the end, are glad that they had their Downs baby, and can't imagine what would drive others to go to such lengths to avoid this fate.

I am most definitely on the fence vis-a-vis abortion, per se. I don't think I could ever counsel someone to have an abortion, unless the circumstances were truly extraordinary. However, one of those little things about being a SNAG (Sensitive, New-Age Guy) like myself is that I recognize that just like one man's trash is another man's treasure, one man's 'not such a big deal' can be another woman's 'truly extraordinary circumstances.'

And honestly, I simply don't have such a high opinion of myself that I think I, or anyone else, are the least bit qualified to judge exactly who would qualify under that benchmark and who would not. So, in the general case of abortion, I think the decision absolutely has to be left up to the woman (ideally, the parents) and her (their) beliefs.

Similarly, in this case, while I don't think that I would choose to abort a Downs child of mine, I simply can't say for sure without being in that circumstance. For some people, say a family who is already struggling to make ends meet, I can absolutely understand how it seems like a life-ending circumstance. And it is certainly my view that bringing a person into this world under conditions where they are unlikely to have the opportunity for a good life is worse than not bringing them into this world at all.