Ethics Survey: Abortion for genetic reasons

With the advent of ever increasing diagnostic technology, we are getting better and better pictures of how children are before they are born. The opportunity to screen for various genetic conditions are constantly increasing - and the decision of what to do if the pregnancy is found to be likely to be deformed / abnormal is being experienced more and more.

Our final question from the ethics survey stated:
A pre-natal check has discovered that a child to be born is likely to have Down's syndrome (a condition where the child is likely to have significant mental retardation) so the pregnancy should be terminated.

The results for this question are:
Almost two thirds of the church members surveyed (n=117) did not agree that the pregnancy should be terminated. About 1 in 10 were unsure, but just over a quarter agreed that the abortion should take place.

Three quarters of the conference delegates disagreed with the decision to do the abortion (n=34). The major difference when compared with the church goers was that only 1 respondant (3%) agreed with the termination - while 1 in 5 of the delegates were not sure what to do.

The findings show that there is a significant proportion of local church-going Christians who believe that it is right to end a pregnancy if the child is in anyway abnormal. Though most of the delegates who were involved in health care clearly disagreed with the abortion, there was a significant group that has still not made up its mind.

Some questions:

1. Do you know someone who has Downs syndrome? What has their experience been? What have the parents learned through the process? What value does that person have in God's sight?

2. If the parents went ahead with the procedure, what should the response of the church be? How deep is our truth and grace in helping people who have done abortions?