Down Syndrome Parents: Palin Is Role Model
CBS Evening News: Parents Say Doctors Need More Care In Counseling Expectant Parents
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Learning About Down Syndrome
Sarah Palin is a role model to many parents of children with Down Syndrome. As Katie Couric reports, the majority of parents that learn of the disorder early choose to terminate the pregnancy.
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Notebook: Down Syndrome
Sarah Palin's fifth child was born with Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects 5,000 babies each year in the U.S. Palin's candidacy is being used to promote awareness. Katie Couric comments.
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Matt Damon Rips Sarah Palin
"CBS News RAW": Actor Matt Damon criticizes Alaska governor Sarah Palin, citing her inexperience in national politics and comparing her candidacy to "a bad Disney movie."
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Todd Palin, husband of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, holds their five-month-old son, Trig. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Palin's Path
A look at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's life and career
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Sarah Palin
Alaska's youngest and first female governor tabbed to be McCain's running mate.
While most Americans hadn't heard of Sarah Palin before she became John McCain's running mate, she was well known to many parents of children with Down Syndrome, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports.
"Gov. Palin went through the same thing we did," said parent Sharon Vopal. "Same prenatal testing; same screening."
Advances in prenatal testing mean more and more expectant parents are finding out earlier. And for some, the reality is too grim to bear.
"Forty percent of babies with Down Syndrome are going to be born with congenital heart disease," said geneticist Robert Marion. "Every baby with Down Syndrome has developed mental disability. A small minority grow up to be independent."
Marion says the vast majority of women who receive a prenatal diagnosis terminate their pregnancies.
"That is such a personal decision and it shouldn't be colored by anything that the doctor says to them about the diagnosis," Marion said.
But that isn't always the case, according to Vopal, who lives in Basking Ridge, N.J.
"I knew right away when she [the doctor] walked in," Vopal said.
Sharon and her husband Jim were expecting twins when tests revealed that one of them has Down Syndrome.
"What did she recommend? Did she say what your options were?" Couric asked.
"She said, 'You're early enough along in your pregnancy that you can terminate,' and in our case, since it's twins, the term she used was 'selective reduction,'" Vopal said.
But Jim is Catholic, and while Sharon is not, they're opposed to abortion - just like Gov. Palin.
"After telling her that we would not terminate, nothing else was discussed," Vopal said. "No information. No resources. No help. No advice. They gave Jim a business card for us to call a genetic counselor, if we chose to. And they led us to a side door."
The Vopals' experience is a common occurrence, says Amy Allison, executive director of the Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City.Katie Couric's Notebook: Down Syndrome
"What we have found historically is that physicians are giving biased information when they're presenting prenatal diagnosis," Allison said.
According to a 2005 survey of nearly 1,300 parents of children with Down Syndrom, a majority reported that the doctors "did not tell them about the positive potential of people with Down Syndrome."
So advocacy groups like Allison's have embarked on a campaign to educate physicians and, in turn, expectant parents about the genetic disorder.
Through a program called "Changing Lives," parents of children with Down Syndrome go directly to doctors and present their version of Down Syndrome 101, giving advice on how to break the news.
"Families can walk out their doors feeling isolated and alone, or they can walk out feeling like they've got a support system," Allison said.
And often, the supporting cast steals the show.
One Down Syndrome teen, Jack Murphy, said: "I want people to know about me - that I'm outstanding, outrageous, smart and intelligent and I know I'm good looking."
The Vopals have now had their twins, and they hope - as the rest of the country learns more about Sarah Palin - Americans also learn more about Down Syndrome.
"She made her choice and we made our choice and other people will make decisions that are best for them," Jim Vopal said.
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Katie Couric's Notebook: Down Syndrome



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See all 133 CommentsIt almost seems she was embarrassed by her son. Sadly, we didn''t even see her or her husband hold him in public until after people started commenting on it.
Any mother that can''t teach her daugher about safe se x and stands on the side while her daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock, not once, but twice, is not a person fit to handle a political office responsibly.
But given the plight of pregnant teenagers in America, when will more articles describing root factors be addressed? The media is a prime suspect, as it does feed into peer pressure that gets children to "play around" in the first place. Obama has it wrong by wanting to teach Kindergartners what a pee-pee does. "Abstinence only" is only being talked about nominally; the underlying concepts of self-respect and respect for others being why one waits in the first place remain completely unspoken. Parents can do only so much; after a point it''s the peer system that takes over. Like it or not, we''re a community - albeit a large one. And the media needs to get away from slap-happy programming. There is a time and place for everything, but I dare say the greed of the marketers ensure the wrong material gets into kids'' hands. Keeping material and its advertisement appropriate to the ratings system helps (encouraging kids to bypass laws to see an "R" rated film when they''re under 17 is as awful as any other form of abuse)
Posted by yongamerica
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Please read my post below as it directly talks about sexuality. How do you know she didn''t teach her kids? And even then, ambient influences are not irrelevant either. Peer pressure for *** is not much different than credit card companies seeking out high school or college kids.
But, I do hope she does a better job with the baby than she did with her shameless, nymphomaniac daughter whom she FAILED miserably! Good luck.
The misinformation that goes around is outrageous. We''re going to elect another candidate that people mistakenly think is a ''real'' person we''d like to have over for a barbecue. I don''t want the president to be someone who does good barbecue. I want a giant on the world stage who can think, reflect, plan, work with people (not get snarky with them like Palin or pop his cork like McCain). I want a return to sanity. Is that too much to ask?
And I''ll know what kind of parents Sarah and Todd are with Trig when I see how they handle his growing years. I know from whence I speak. It''s tough. But rewarding. I hope they can handle it. But I''m not ready to canonize them just because the accepted him into this world. That part was only right.
If Sarah Palin is such a pro-life advocate, then why did she bother to even have the testing done?
She is not a role model. She is a self-serving hypocrit and liar. Her ambition knows no bounds and if McCain is elected, I would watch my back if I were him. She will make it into the White House some how.
p.s. Exposing any infant in a room where the decibel level was as high as it was in that convention hall is irresponsible at best, in my opinion downright negligent--especially for a child with special needs.
p.p.s. What kind of children''s advocate would be part of a campaign that totally lies and misharacterizes age-appropriate *** education assome kind of dirty introduction to *** education. The bill Senator Obama supported included age-appropriate *** education for young children designed to help hem protect themselves from sexual predators by recognizing inappropriate behaviors in an adult. I made sure my daughter understood very early in life what her "private parts" were and that no one should touch her there and how to say "NO" to an adult and later report the incident if it happened. Shame on the McCain/Palin campaign for LYING in their ad and shame on CBS for tacitly supporting such a campaign in every sneaky way possible. Shame! shame! shame on you!
Now, she''s neglecting him. I''m a feminist but when women have children, we put them ahead of our career which means we MUST spend a lot of time with them when they are babies. Her baby is too little to be away from his mother.
Sorry, everyone, she may be a lot of wonderful things, but she''s not a wonderful mom.
Palin, Republican, evangelical, and a politician to boot, may have made a selfless choice, but she also made the politically correct choice. Would she be standing there as an icon to motherhood if she had aborted her baby?
But what about the pain of the families who made a different choice? Who wanted that child but for some reason, selfish or unselfish, could not bear to bring the baby to term? What about providing health care for everyone and providing long term health care for families who have special needs children? Where is the Republican sympathy for unwed mothers, for teenagers facing such decision? Hypocrites. The pro-life movement only cares about people before they are born. Afterwards you are on your own.
Does this sound like she was making decisions in the best interest of her Down syndrome child she was giving birth to? She passed by hospitals in both Texas and Alaska and risked infection or other possible mishaps, just so her own doctor could deliver. Sounds to me like she might have actually wanted something bad to happen and lose the child. If nothing else, this doesn''t show me a person with sound facilities for decision-making.
birth in america is considered a major medical emergency- which it isn''t!
birth in america is considered a major medical emergency- which it isn''t!
birth in america is considered a major medical emergency- which it isn''''t!
Posted by sardines46 at 08:29 PM : Sep 10, 2008
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So, the fact that the baby was already starting out with challenges wasn''t enough to make her give his welfare more consideration?
Posted by OneAmerican4 at 07:33 PM : Sep 10, 2008
It''s plainly obvious to me you conservatives have no regard for life, regardless of the age of the individual. try googling and see what comes up with the image search of these words: iraq, war, wounded, dead, children. Another good one is: poverty, hunger because you seem to think once the kid is born, nothing more needs to be done!
Posted by OneAmerican4 at 07:33 PM : Sep 10, 2008----------------
Oh yea, Sarah''s regard for Trig''s life is real evident!
She DOES seem like a exemplary Republican:
- As mayor, she took a balanced budget and left it $19 million in debt.
- As mayor, she fired the town librarian when she insisted that banning books was not in the mayors purvue.
- She ''told Congress no'' about the bridge to nowhere, but ''told Congress yes'' about the money to build it. Thats like a pickpocket asking to be rewarded for returning your wallet (empty of all its cash).
- Her idea of raising 5 kids, most under 14, is to let someone else do it. She''ll see them during the photo-ops.
- She believes that women should be forced by the government to give birth to their rapists child.
Is that why her 17yr old daughter is knocked up.
And believe it or not the National Enquired is reporting that her son who is headed for Iraq, is nothing more than a drug abuser pill poppin, cocaine, smoking weed loser, who had no choice but to join the Army.
Great Mom - Go Sarah
What does this have to do with being the president of the most powerful country in the free world?
Do you think Putin is going to take that into consideration before he nukes us?
I, like another mom who posted, was diagnosed in Mass. and received excellent references and supports. That changed dramatically when we moved to NJ while I was still pregnant.
Most women I have met were not given accurate information about DS; they are not connected to other parents; they were pressured to terminate. One friend was offered a termination 4 times, and 3 offers were from docs who did not know her.
45% of women are pro-life, so where does the 90% termination rate for DS come from? A large chunk of it can be laid squarely at the medical community''s feet for mis-information. I hope that we can educate the medical community to be more balanced in the information they choose to give us.
By the way, I am pro-choice but CHOSE to keep my daughter. There are many women like me in the DS community.
Palin completely lacks any real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet, let alone the PRESIDENT when McCain kicks the bucket from malignant melanoma.
Palin''s support of "abstinence only s.3x education" hasn''t worked with her own daughter, so she''s not a very good parent, either!
In WHAT WAY is Palin a "role model"?
Answer: NO WAY!
Sarah Palin DOES NOT represent American values and is UNFIT to be president!
I agree Sarah Palin is not qualified to be VP of this country; however, I take serious offense to your ignorant remark about her "inflicting life" on her mentally disabled child. Have you ever known anyone with Down Syndrome? It appears not. If you had, you''d know they are some of the most loving and happy people on this earth. My sister has Down Syndrome and I don''t know what kind of person I''d be without her.
Obama ''08
two choices: irresponsible and sorely lacking in good judgement, or not pregnant. since choice two seemingly has been laid to rest, we must by default choose door number one.
Second, isn''t PRO CHOICE all about the CHOOSING!!! I support women having the choice to abort unwanted pregnancies but also think they should be able to make the choice not to abort without being judged. Seems like a double standard to me.
I think keeping a Down''s baby is a VERY personal choice. I think no one has the right to judge a parent making this choice.
Some of the comments I read here are hateful. I don''t know how you can hate a woman who was introduced to the public a short time ago that you don''t even know.
I will make my choice later about who to vote for but don''t imagine I''ll end up making hateful comments about the other choice.
She would rather impose her beliefs on Americans than to free us to discover cures for life-threatening diseases, via stem-cell research.
While the neocons waffle, the rest of the developed world forges ahead and leaves us in the dust.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26646843/
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