No, but I also wouldn’t have ended our pregnancy had my daughter tested positive. I would have prepared for a different life, and I would have been happy if scared to be the father of a down kid. I’m not here to criticize anyone’s choices in their life - it’s their life. But I think we vastly under value down people. They have more love in their heart than an entire city of people without down. My friends brother was down and we spent a lot of time together, and I’ve since made a point of getting to know the down people I come across in life. They are truly the blessed amongst us.

I believe there are different degrees of it and being a parent to a severe case is a much more stressful life long commitment than being a friend to a mild case.

Yes you’re 100% correct. My friends brother was a severe case. It was not easy to raise him and he requires life long care. When the parent die I assume he will have to live in a home. He was non verbal and not self sufficient in most anything. Yet, he was always happy and kind, gentle, and loving. Even when things frustrated him he handled it better than I do now. But I will always remember his parents would discuss openly how blessed they felt that he had been born, and he seemed happy to be alive when I knew him. In some ways I think his parents also liked that when their other kids grew up and moved away Jeff was still there with them. As a father I selfishly can identify with that watching my daughter grow and knowing a day is coming when she will make her own way. Anyway, it is definitely complex - it was nice to read in the linked article some number of people are intentionally raising down children.