Have you ever been asked
“the question?”
I’d guess the question most frequently posed to parents of a child who has Down syndrome is “Did you know before he was born?” or “Didn’t you get tested?”
Next on the list of FAQ’s would be “How severe is it?”
The first question is offensive because it assumes that if you did know you would have chosen not to go forward with the pregnancy. The other is equally troublesome because of the implication that there is some type of measure for the amount of chromosome 21 that exists within the cells of people who have Down syndrome. Both queries reflect the general population’s misunderstanding of who our loved ones are: valuable human beings with every right to exist and be who they are.