Inherited Disabilities and Having Babies

[Aliantha]

Because of our ages and suspicion of other possible chromosonal disorders in my family, we went through a screening process for those types of disorders when we concieved Max. We had already decided to do so when we first decided to have a baby. We also had all the early term scans available.

We had not decided to terminate if there were problems, but taking into account our ages and possible life span of a disabled child (which would obviously depend on the disability) termination was certainly an option for us.

To inform you, my mother gave birth to a severly disabled son. He died when he was five. Her sister gave birth to a similarly but less severe disabled son who is still alive at 35 years of age, but his father recently died, and now my aunt is left to care for him alone.

The doctors have suspected one of two disorders. Either Chromoson X or Noonans disorder. Both are genetic and affect male children with the mother being the carrier.

Having children was a big decision for me. I've been lucky with three healthy children.