ProWomanProLife

  • The Story
  • The Women
  • Notable Columns
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for Barbara Farlow

Annie Farlow in the news

June 24, 2009 by Andrea Mrozek 2 Comments

I missed this yesterday. We’ve written about Barbara Farlow’s struggle for her daughter Annie before. Here’s another item:

Judge Thea Herman is to decide on a request by Sick Kids and two defendant doctors to elevate the case to Ontario Superior Court, with its stricter procedural safeguards and rules of evidence.

If Mrs. Farlow wins, the case will proceed as a “small claim,” and two doctors at Canada’s top pediatric hospital will not only have to defend against allegations they deliberately killed a baby because she had a fatal genetic abnormality, but they will do so in a forum designed for minor disputes over unpaid bills, encroaching fences and overhanging trees.

But if she loses and the case is moved up, it will mark the likely end of an epic legal battle for understanding and closure — in the offices of the Chief Coroner, the Privacy Commissioner, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, even a Catholic archbishop — that has turned Mrs. Farlow, a former automotive engineer and mother of nine, into a powerhouse patients’ rights activist, with supporters across North America.

The article says a decision was expected yesterday, but I have not heard what that decision was. I’ll post it when I find out.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Barbara Farlow

“Genetic complications”

November 10, 2008 by Andrea Mrozek 5 Comments

An editorial in the Ottawa Citizen today on prenatal testing:

Consider how prenatal testing has affected the Down syndrome community. It used to be that only the fetuses of women over 35 were tested for the extra chromosome that causes the condition. Now, in some jurisdictions, women of all ages are tested, and 90 per cent of fetuses with the defect are aborted. Whether you believe this is good or bad, there’s no denying that it’s significant.

I just returned from listening to Barbara Farlow talk at an Action Life meeting about her daughter Annie, diagnosed in the womb with a genetic problem, Trisomy 13. Annie lived for 80 days, and then died under suspicious circumstances in hospital. Barbara (in her quiet, steadfast, unemotional manner) explained she is concerned about the doctors–who see in a disabled patient dollar signs and bed spaces where a person with a better chance of living, or a higher quality of life–could be. In some cases, these doctors would prefer you terminate and where they don’t–a callous attitude has evolved in the health care system at large. Why help someone who is weaker at the expense of someone who is stronger? When our health care system won’t allow for both.

Prenatal testing–it’s neither good nor bad–in and of itself. How we use it most certainly is. I hear stories of doctors pushing for testing where patients don’t want it, and I wonder how often this happens. Or, how often a patient feels pressure to terminate because the baby *may* not be perfect. (These tests are often wrong.)

_______________________________

Rebecca adds: The key, in my opinion, is informed choice, rather an informed consent. The implication of the phrase “informed consent” is “we will explain everything about the test to you, and then you will agree to it.” Implicit in true consent is that you can choose to withhold your consent. We need to explain to all healthcare consumers that they can refuse any test or treatment. Of course, when it’s your child’s wellbeing on the line, it’s especially easy to be browbeaten by medical personnel.

Quite apart from the very real issue of false positives (and, for some tests, false negatives) it should be made much more clear that testing for genetic conditions does nothing to improve outcomes, will not change whether your baby does or does not have a given disorder, and can cause more stress that it’s worth. While I believe non-invasive testing for issues with a higher than average probability it worthwhile, one could certainly make the case that, if you would not abort under any circumstances, these tests are best declined.

_______________________________

Tanya comments: A friend of mine recently said to me, “I am better off getting pregnant soon, rather than waiting another year, because when I’m 35, the doctors will make me have an amniocentesis.”

Culturally, we actually expect to be pushed into things we don’t want to do (when it comes to all that lies under the umbrella of healthcare, that is).

For the record, I did remind her that no one can make her get an amnio, that they are in and of themselves risky, and that their accuaracy is questionable.

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: Annie Farlow, Barbara Farlow, disability, Health care

Follow Us

Facebooktwitterrssby feather

Notable Columns

  • A pro-woman budget wouldn't tell me how to live my life
  • Bad medicine
  • Birth control pills have side effects
  • Canada Summer Jobs debacle–Can Trudeau call abortion a right?
  • Celebrate these Jubilee jailbirds
  • China has laws against sex selection. But not Canada. Why?
  • Family love is not a contract
  • Freedom to discuss the “choice”
  • Gender quotas don't help business or women
  • Ghomeshi case a wake-up call
  • Hidden cost of choice
  • Life at the heart of the matter
  • Life issues and the media
  • Need for rational abortion debate
  • New face of the abortion debate
  • People vs. kidneys
  • PET-P press release
  • Pro-life work is making me sick
  • Prolife doesn't mean anti-woman
  • Settle down or "lean in"
  • Sex education is all about values
  • Thank you, Camille Paglia
  • The new face of feminism
  • Today’s law worth discussing
  • When debate is shut down in Canada’s highest places

Categories

  • All Posts
  • Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia
  • Charitable
  • Ethics
  • Featured Media
  • Featured Posts
  • Feminism
  • Free Expression
  • International
  • Motherhood
  • Other
  • Political
  • Pregnancy Care Centres
  • Reproductive Technologies

All Posts

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in