THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, February 28, 1995             TAG: 9502280005
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   39 lines

SPEAK TO THE `EXPERTS' ON DOWN SYNDROME

Your Feb. 22 front-page headline was quite misleading as well as alarming. It blatantly suggests a medical breakthrough for Down syndrome, when in fact it is an early detection procedure to be offered to prospective parents with fertility problems. In other words, it's an easy, non-invasive way to weed out the genetically less-than-perfect.

Although an attempt was made to offer the ethical implications of such a test, no attempt was made to offer an effort to totally inform the prospective parents what it is really like to be a parent of a child with Down syndrome. We are the experts here, yet time and again our services are ignored. Instead, abortion is the only alternative offered or, in this case, the non-implantation of the fertilized egg.

Being a parent of a child with Down syndrome is not always easy. To the contrary, it is filled with challenges. Initially, to be sure, there is a surrendering of hopes and dreams that often occurs after many tears have been shed. But the waiting list for people in this country hoping to adopt a baby with Down syndrome, the wall-to-wall babies at our new-mom get-togethers and the eagerness of parents to educate themselves speak volumes.

So we implore that the Jones Institute, after having performed its pre-gestational, ethically-involved procedures, would please encourage prospective parents to pick up the phone and call us. After all, the qualities of sweetness and innocence that individuals with Down syndrome possess are qualities that our world could use more of, not less.

JOAN BLIND, president

Tidewater Down Syndrome Association

Virginia Beach, Feb. 22, 1995 by CNB