Tay-Sachs

REFLECTIONS ON THE TROSACKS'S CHOICE 1) Thoughts and Feelings As a person in the medical profession I would greatly encourage this couple to proceed with a therapeutic abortion. I see no positives in giving life to a baby with Tay-Sachs. My feelings are based primarily on the fatal prognosis of the unborn. A life of Tay-Sachs will torture the child, who will slowly and painfully deteriorate and die for four or five years. Giving birth to a Tay-Sachs baby can also devastate the parents. Their relationship is likely to suffer. Guilt may eat at them. The burden of caring for a dying infant may overwhelm a normal relationship. The medical expense may bankrupt the couple's economy. One parent may have to quit their job in order to take care of the great medical needs of this baby. Support groups and religious groups can only help to a point. They can not be there at all times when the parents are burned out, overwhelmed, and tired of the endless medical and physical care of a being they can not communicate with and that day after day appears in worse health. I can not imagine how devastating it would be seeing a healthy baby deteriorate, suffer and slowly die a painful death. The feeling of powerlessness must be inmmense. It is my personal opinion that terminating the pregnancy is the only choice. 2. Advocating for the Couple's Decision (whether or not I agree) 3. Ethical and Legal Considerations Is it ethical to bring to the world a baby to die a painful dead during the first years of his life' Some religious leaders say Tay Sachs disease is a sufficient reason for abort the fetus in the first three months of the pregnancy; other say that the physical and mental pain of having such a child would be reason enough for abortion even during the very late stage of the embryo. People who decide to continue their pregnancy to full term of a Tay-Sachs baby have deep religious convictions that keeps them from “committing murder” of a human being. This moral issue divides most people. There are two different religious points of views regarding the product of pregnancy. One says the fetus is a “human within a human” (sanhedrin 57b, re Genesis 9:6). The other belief is that a child is a human person only after it emerges from the womb ( Rashi on Sanhedrin 72b, re Ohalot 7.6) before that , it is simply a part of the mother's body. If the fetus is regarded as a human, then he is entitled to the right of life and all its privileges. There are no legal problems in having a baby with the disease as long as the parents are fully aware of their situation. Some parents are known to file for wrongful life. This happens when parents sue their doctors for not informing them of defects the child would have. Other legal issues the parents would face will be in deciding how long to extend the life of the ill child as some doctors would want to stop heroic efforts when the child becomes gravely ill. Some parents have a hard time letting go and demand for everything to be done. Come of these parents would have to go to court to extend the life of their loved one.