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The Electronic Telegraph ISSUE 2150 Saturday 14 April 2001(uk0

Minister attacks tests to 'eliminate' Down's babies

By Benedict Brogan, Political Correspondent

A MINISTER has condemned as " grotesque " the use of amniocentesis testing

during pregnancy to " eliminate " the majority of children diagnosed with

Down's

syndrome.

said that the modern obsession with achieving an " assumed

social

good " also meant that " four times as many non-Down's kids are not born " . The

new Foreign Office minister, who has a nine-year-old son with the condition,

said the use of abortion to avoid the risk of having a Down's child meant

those who survived were deprived of proper care.

In an interview with The Telegraph that will fuel the debate about genetic

testing, he said: " I find it grotesque that 95 per cent of Down's children

are

eliminated as a result of amniocentesis. And to achieve the assumed social

good, four times as many non-Down's kids are not born. " Mr , 52, has

three children: Mairi, 12, Eoin, 9, and Ronan, four. Eoin has Down's

syndrome

and attends a special school near the family home in Glasgow.

Some 40,000 women have an amniocentesis test each year to check for the

chromosomal abnormality that indicates Down's. The test, which involves

drawing amniotic fluid from the uterus, carries a risk of miscarriage. A

recent study at St Bartholemew's hospital, London, showed that while tests

identified 100 Down's cases each year, 400 healthy foetuses miscarried as a

result. There are about 1,800 abortions a year due to foetal abnormality,

out

of an annual total of about 175,000 abortions.

Mr said the loss of so many children with Down's had an effect on

those

who were born. " There is a double jeopardy for the few who do make it into

the

world, because there are so few of them, and less pressure to do very much

for

them. In a civilised society, there should be a Rolls-Royce service for the

small number of children who have these requirements, and I don't think

that's

the case. Though I believe that what this Government is doing will improve

their position. "

Two London hospitals, the Royal Brompton and the Harefield, apologise to

angry

parents this month after a report showed that patients with Down's were

" less

favoured " ' for treatment.

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