The community has been hurt and dismayed to hear Emmerdale are running a story where a child is aborted on the Grounds of having Down's syndrome.
We feel that this is a step back and wonder why Down's syndrome? They could have chosen a life limiting condition, or could the couple have decided the time was not right to have any pregnancy!
Why Down's syndrome? We think sensationalism and feel this is a backwards step with a storyline that uses a young character who has Down's syndrome to justify itself, when in reality this makes the storyline much worse. People who have Down's syndrome will see this as confirmation that society deems them unworthy of life, how many will see this and find out their minority groups is singled out, or screened out, with an assumption that the mother will abort?
We don't think Emmerdale should run such a negative story on Down's syndrome, we believe people who have Down's syndrome, Down's syndrome charities and more parents should have been involved in the discussion so that Emmerdale can see the truth behind why so many people actually abort. The fear of the unknown, the expectation that is what they should do and the fearmongering questions that you couldn't possibly answer if you have never had any balanced information or lived experience. Questions that we know are proposed by Ark like 'Do you think you could cope?' How could anybody possibly know if they have not been given balanced information??