A disabled student in my class at Cal this semester – who has a prenatally screenable genetic condition -- told a story about her relationship with her mother about her disability. My student is twenty but her mother is still trying to conceive a "normal" child and has had several abortions of fetuses with my student's condition.
This is devastatingly painful for this young woman. She is clearly getting the message that she failed her mother by being born "defective." Even though this student is successful enough to attend the university, only a "normal" child would please her mother, who keeps trying and testing years later to get the "valid" child she wants.
Interestingly, when my other students heard the student share her story, there were tears shed by several students in the class. I think they "got it": that prenatal testing has powerful effects beyond the immediate issues of mother and child.
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