“Choosing Down Syndrome”

Lifespan: Stories of Illness, Accident, and Recovery

Chris Kaposy and Jan Beattie have three children: Elizabeth, 14, Aaron, 11, and Ty, 7. With each pregnancy, Jan and Chris decided in advance to refuse prenatal testing. But when Jan was pregnant with Aaron, her first ultrasound at 19 weeks showed some markers for Down syndrome and she and Chris had to revisit their original decision about prenatal testing.

Chris is a biomedical ethicist and Jan is a nurse, so they brought unique forms of medical knowledge to the series of questions they had to ask and answer quickly. Since Aaron’s birth, Chris has written the book, Choosing Down Syndrome: Ethics and New Prenatal Testing Technologies.

In this episode of Lifespan, Jan and Chris talk about their family, disability, and society.

For a link to Chris’ book, visit: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/choosing-down-syndrome