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I think abortion should, as a rule, always be legal. That means I have no problem with abortion being legal for parents who want to prevent their Downs fetuses from being born. But it makes me a little queasy.
A friend of mine had a baby/fetus that she aborted because it had a serious birth defect. One that would cause the baby, if born, to have a short and painful life that might last as long as a month or two in the hospital. It was a gut wrenching decision for her, but I think she did the right thing. I have no problem with that at all.
So I support and even encourage having an abortion when the fetus has a serious birth defect like the one above.
Downs is tougher. To make it personal, I've got a mentally retarded cousin, and while she has been quite a burden at times for her family, she is living on her own now, and leads a good and productive life. She's a great person. I'd be horrified at the thought of killing her.
To me, though, abortion isn't killing a person. It's more like erasing the life that could have been. It's hard to image what life would be like for me and my extended family if my cousin had never been in it. Maybe it would be a better life for us, maybe it would be worse. Who are we to even be making that choice? Well, this gets into religious beliefs and the morals/ethics of each family. So I'm going to cop out and say that it's really up to the parents. And I'm OK with that.
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