Free Response #2

Main Argument: Prenatal testing and abortion are not bad, and should not be criticized, as such actions could have rational reasons.

     With technology, medicine and biology have developed, especially in methods such as prenatal determination and testing. The idea of determining the disabilities and sicknesses of a child before they are born could save numerous lives. These sicknesses could range from instant death upon birth, inevitable death after birth (after a few years), or a disability that a person would have to live with for the rest of their lives. Therefore, being informed about these sicknesses could prevent a child from pain and suffering, as seen in the poor family which Salman Khan sponsors, and the movie, The Mighty.

            Testing for signs of such diseases is also beneficial to parents, who might choose to keep, or drop a child with a discovered disability. Koffee with Karan, and Indian show with celebrity guests, once had the actor, Salman Khan, on show. During the show, Karan (the host) showed a touching video about a poor family with a disabled son, and a normal child. The son had a disease similar to osteoporosis, which restricted movement and speech. Thus, the only thing the son could do all do was sit on a bed in the corner of the small mud house. The family was already living  on a meager amount of money, and feeding a person that could not contribute to the income made life a lot harder than it already was. Prenatal testing in a case like this could have saved the family from such financial difficulties as they could have chosen to abort after discoveringa disease.

      Other than financial trouble, physically or mentally disabled people can also have an affect on people around  such them, psychologically. In the movie The Mighty, for example, there is a boy who is physically weak and cannot walk on his own. The family knows that the boy does not have much time to live, so they treat him normally and send him to a normal school, where he meets an introverted big boy who has no friends. The disabled boy is mostly ignored, pushed around, or bullied, at the school, and his problems are stressful for the parents, who worry for him all the time. The big boy, who also becomes his friend later on, has to worry about the disabled boy dying or having an attack at any moment. Lastly, the disabled boy worries and is scared knowing that he doesn't have much time to live. Everyone is basically very worried and emotionally unstable because of the disabled child who is going to die soon. Prenatal testing or abortion could have been the solution. If the sick boy had been aborted, the parents wouldn't be emotionally attached to a disabled boy and would not have to worry about a child who cannot walk, and the big boy would not have to constantly wonder when his friend is going to die. The child itself, if aborted, would not have known he was meant to be alive, and everyone would have been more or less happy in the end.
         
      As harsh as abortion and prenatal testing can sound, they could also be solutions to better lives, financially and emotionally. Testing and abortion still gives parents a choice of whether to drop the fetus or still allow it to live, with all its disabilities. In providing such choices, people can make educated decisions about the future of the child that they may or may not have. Abortion and prenatal testing are not necessarily ways to destroy or take away a life, but to prevent a life of possible sadness, misery, and hopelessness.