Comments for A Treatment for Down Syndrome? at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 9 out of 9 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 26 May 2013 02:41:55 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9267 Just a fast note, my son is also a club member and has Down syndrome. I just happy someone is trying to help. God bless them. G. Sagmiller, Dakota’s Dad of the PBS heartwarming documentary about a father's search for the truth about down syndrome! Mr. Girard Sagmiller - G Sagmiller Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:02:08 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9254 "We" did not become pregnant. Your wife did. And let's not go too far with the sentimentality. A child is gift from God but if I could cure mine of Downs I certainly would jump at the chance. Unless you are rich every parent of a child with Downs knows that their kid is going on his or her own one day. What will happen? Is my child going to be preyed on? And don't assume that your relatives and other children will step in. They might or they might not. My relatives are great for good times but have all made themselves scarce when I needed help. Parents' facing a Downs Syndrome pregnancy have a lot to deal with. Don't try to diminish that. - daisy Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:45:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9247 One of the most blessed and happiest families I know of -- and they'll probably know who I'm talking about if they read this -- has been blessed with two Down Syndrome children, both girls. Their last child, last of seven, is a normal and strapping young lad. When I've been to visit, I've sat down at the piano to play hymns, and one of the girls gets out her violin to accompany me, and the other girl sings out. My own son is autistic, and long ago it came to us that the "disability" was a great blessing. Truly I say to you, said the Lord, that unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven. - Tony Esolen Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:02:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9236 We had a daughter, our 7th child at age 41. At the time people asked "If we knew what we were doing"? My response was it would be better to have a mentally retarded child than a spiritually retarded child. I don't think they ever saw themselves spiritually retarded when I said it but I hoped it made them think later. Down syndrome children don't think they are mentally retarded and they think they are normal. Perhaps the world is mentally retarded because they can't see the image of God in these beautiful children. - Papa Sat, 17 Dec 2011 19:27:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9231 I know of one child cured through the current apparitions of Virgin Mary in Salta, Argentina (as well as my 4 year old deaf nephew and other "impossible" cases: cancer, heart, neurodegeneration). Have faith! - F. Nazar Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:10:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9223 Katie is exactly right. To attempt to find a 'cure' for DS is to overlook the hidden gift they offer - and it is a gift of eternal significance. It also assumes that the way we 'think' at this point - through abstraction, conceptual determination, discursion - are ideal. In fact they are not. DS people 'think' less in abstractions and more in concrete realities. They remind a world like ours, a world that has become distant and detached from one another, that the truest knowledge is the affection of love, not the intellection of cognition. This is what my son with DS has been teaching me. Does he need a cure? Not at all. I do, so that I might communicate with him better. - Brendan Sat, 17 Dec 2011 06:02:33 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9217 I don't think a cure for Down Syndrome is "Heaven sent." The intellectual disabilities are not the problem; the attitude towards them are. - Katie Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:38:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9216 Dave, your comments are spot on. As the mother of a nine year old daughter with Down syndrome, my inner peace began when, before her birth, I learned of her disability, and began to open my heart to her as she is. Was it due to a pre-natal screening? No, it was the Lord speaking to me in the silence of my heart while I was expecting Christina. We were at Mass, and I 'heard' "You're going to have a child with Down syndrome." I had difficulty accepting this, so, while on the Communion Line, the voice spoke again, "I want you to accept this child as a gift from My Hand when you receive Me." Now there was no doubt, Jesus had a call for me to deepen my vocation as mother. And to enter another; as advocate for those like Christina, who are so widely rejected before birth. We who love those with Down syndrome have an unofficial (so far) patron saint in Dr Lejeune. When I read his biography "Life is a Blessing" in 2006, I was inspired to write about the joy Christina spreads everywhere she goes. She is truly a Missionary of Love. I pray for the promising research initiatives to become reality because I want my Christina to think and speak without struggling, to be independent if she chooses. But I have no doubt that whether this becomes reality or not, she is already a gift from the Hand of God to a dark world which urgently needs her lessons in love. - Leticia Velasquez Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:22:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/a-treatment-for-down-syndrome.html#comment-9215 One of the most amazing stories I know of a Down Syndrome child is a young girl in Spain. Her father is a pharmacist; her mother, a lawyer. They determined that they would raise their daughter as they had raised their other children. The young lady reads -- she loves to read, in fact. She holds a job she loves. She lives independently. She goes out with her friends. She walks into any room and the sun comes out. Another Down child known to us can already be described as a saint. He has gone through three rounds of leukemia, suffering incredibly through each treatment and offering the suffering for those who asked for his prayers. He met Bl. Pope John Paul II. He spreads hope everywhere he goes, and he goes a lot of places. Mr. Ruse's last paragraph of an extraordinary article hits the nail on the head. Down Syndrome people love and they live with joy. As I survey the vast human panorama and see so many people whose faces are marked by suffering, anguish and unhappiness, I have to ask myself who, really, is living a "normal" life and can we learn from the gifts to us who are people with Down Syndrome. So Mr. Ruse poses two challenges to us, right out of the heart of our Catholic Faith: the first is to support tirelessly, in the ways that we can, the good work of those who seek to alleviate human suffering. The second is to see the hand of God and the mysterious workings of grace even in those situations we would normally call tragedies. You see, my wife and I couldn't have children, nor did things align for us to adopt. We both love children and would have loved to have our own. But God knows best and in acceptance of His will, of those things we cannot change, we find our peace, which can lead to joy when we learn not only to accept but to love the actual circumstances of our lives. For it is those circumstances, and not the ones we wish we had, that Christ our Lord came to redeem at his Incarnation, the celebration of which is upon us. - Dave Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:02:23 +0100