Letter: Regarding George Will column, banning parental choice is what's 'barbaric'

Joyce Calese, Port St. Lucie

Letter: Banning parental choice is what's 'barbaric'

Columnist George Will writes that prenatal testing for search-and-destroy missions against Down syndrome and other handicapped babies is barbaric.

What is barbaric, inhumane and stupid would be not allowing parents to make the choice of whether or not to carry to term a severely deformed fetus whose life would be only pain and grief for the child and the parents. Banning the ability to choose is what the "right to life" crowd would inflict on a family who may not have the resources that Will has to raise such a child.

The same conservatives who want to deny parents this choice also want to cut back on funding for services including Medicaid, which provides health care for special-needs children whose parents are not wealthy like Will.

Let the likes of George Will, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum make the decision to bring a seriously afflicted child into the world, but let other parents make a different decision without being called "barbaric." These parents suffer enough without that judgment handed down by the likes of Will.