prenatal testing

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I had a conversation the other day about prenatal testing. I was telling somebody that I would not do invasive prenatal testing with any subsequent pregnancies, would not risk a 1:300 chance of miscarriage (some sources, including a British government website say 1:100, but my understanding is that the risk is generally understood to be 1:300 now). I also said I wouldn't terminate a pregnancy due to a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. "Terminate just because of Down Syndrome? Who would do that?" she asked. "Well, actually, about 92% of people who have prenatal diagnosis." It's an amazingly high figure. What I don't know is what percentage of people choose to opt out of diagnostic testing. But this 90-92% has been a consistent figure I've seen for termination rates of pregnancies with a positive diagnosis of Down Syndrome.

I'll be honest; I don't know what I would have done 4 years ago if my AFP test would have come back positive and my doctor had recommended an amnio. I don't know what I would have done if I'd had that amnio. We'd have had to talk about it and make a decision. I'm glad we didn't know, didn't talk about it, didn't have a choice to make. We had a child to take home and love. And now, now that I know what parenting a child with Down Syndrome is like, I have a hard time understanding how so many people could think that this is not a life worth living or a child worth raising. People seem to think that a child like mine can't have a good life. But look at the trailer for the new documentary movie "Monica and David". Or at The Specials, an online docu-soap chronicling the lives of housemates with disabilities, predominately Down Syndrome. Tell me these people don't have good lives!
I respect the rights of others to choose whether to have any baby at all, to have choices about unwanted pregnancies, and I do not think it is my place to tell people which babies to have. At the same time, for me, I don't think the arguments about quality of life are valid. My kid has a good life, and can continue to have a good life. Stuff could get in the way of that, as it could for anyone's child, and we can't predict all of that, but in general there is much hope for a good life. I don't think any of us wish for our child to be born with any condition that makes things a bit harder, but a condition like Down Syndrome is not enough for me to reconsider that child's life. My hope would be that if given more accurate information instead of a laundry list of medical problems with the prenatal diagnosis, more parents would see a life worth living.