what
\nis, and what isn’t, hard<\/a> about having a child with Down syndrome. Hundreds of
\ncomments came in, both in support of our decisions and with skepticism or even
\ndisdain of the path our family has taken. <\/p>\nI was prepared for many of the responses. But one of the
\nthemes that emerged surprised me. People who wanted to defend the existence of
\nchildren with disabilities time and again compared the birth of a child with
\nDown syndrome to an older child in a car accident. The analogy was meant to support our decisions. Just as we care for the
\nchildren and adults among us after tragedy occurs, be that through the loss of
\nphysical or mental function, so too we should care for the infants in our
\nmidst. <\/p>\n
And yet something about the comparison struck me as off. Was
\nit really as if Penny had been hit by a car when that extra chromosome became a
\npart of her genetic material, present in every cell of her body? <\/p>\n
Biologically speaking, Down syndrome is an accident. When
\nsperm and egg meet, they are meant to split down conventional lines and each
\noffer 23 chromosomes. By this reasoning, twins are equally accidental. Here, both Down
\nsyndrome and twins are accidents according to definition number three: “any
\nevent that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.”<\/p>\n
But when we talk about car accidents, we generally intend
\ndefinition number one: “an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs
\nunintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss.” It’s
\nwith this definition that I start to wonder. I can’t say that Penny’s
\nconception was undesirable or unfortunate. Nor could I say that it has resulted
\nin harm, injury, damage or loss. As I’ve written many times over, hers is a
\nlife of fullness, joy, and hope. So I fall back to a place I’ve been before, in an attempt to reconcile the hardships and real trials that come with life with a disability and simultaneous joy and goodness of that life. And it makes me think that all of our lives are intentional ones. Gifts. <\/p>\n
(In honor of Down syndrome Awareness Month, I’m going to run a weekly reflection on a topic or question related to Down syndrome. Check back in next Wednesday morning for another post on a related topic<\/i>.)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Accident: [ak-si-duhnt] -noun 1. an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss; casualty; mishap: automobile accidents. 2. Law. such a happening resulting in injury that is in no way the fault of the injured person for which compensation or indemnity is legally sought. 3. any event…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Law. such a happening resulting in injury that is in no way the fault of the injured person for which compensation or indemnity is legally sought. 3. any event…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-10-06T09:54:50+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html","name":"Is Down Syndrome An Accident? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-06T09:54:50+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-06T09:54:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/10\/is-down-syndrome-an-accident.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Down Syndrome An Accident?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}