"You can't put a price on a Down's child"

21/09/16 Daily Mail

Senior doctors sparked fury on Tuesday 20th September for suggesting the NHS should work out the ‘cost effectiveness’ of caring for children with Down’s syndrome.

It was condemned as ‘putting a price on a life’ by families of children with the condition.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists raised the prospect in a consultation into a new test for Down’s which the NHS is set to approve.

It added: ‘Such an economic analysis may (or may not) suggest that testing for all is cost-effective.’ 

Yesterday Dr Elizabeth Corcoran, of the Down’s Syndrome Research Foundation, said: ‘It has always been our fear that these types of calculations and economic analyses go on behind closed doors between policy makers, but here it is in black and white.

MY TALENTED SON IS A JOY, HE'S NOT A BURDEN

 

Twenty-year-old Oliver Hellowell has Down’s syndrome and is a successful wildlife photographer.

He has taken acclaimed pictures of stunning scenes from nature while amassing a global Facebook following of 60,000 fans.

Now Oliver’s mother Wendy O’Carroll is outraged by the Royal College’s suggestion that the NHS should calculate how ‘cost-effective’ it is to look after Down’s children.

Mrs O’Carroll, 56, from Somerset, said: ‘The cold and calculated argument which happily balances human life against possible medical costs is one I find both terrifying and deeply disturbing on so many levels. I am not against abortion, and I do believe parents have a right to choose, but I am vehemently against an approach which presents our children as nothing but a burden.

‘As the parent of a 20-year-old young man with Down’s syndrome who is enjoying life enormously, and bringing incredible value to the lives of all those who come into contact with him... I know this to be untrue.’

Mrs O’Carroll, who also has a daughter, Anna, attributes Oliver’s success to his eye for detail, partly due to his condition.

‘It is utterly shocking that in this day and age someone can put a cost value on someone’s life just because they have a disability. It is worse still that this comes from a respected Royal College that is a professional beacon for doctors.’

Pregnant women can already have a Non-Invasive Prenatal Test privately, costing between £400 and £900. But campaigners fear that it will spark an increase in abortions, because an estimated 90 cent of women with an unborn Down’s baby opt for a termination.

Testing only high-risk women would keep costs down, but such a regime would inevitably mean some babies with Down’s would be missed – put at 289 a year. As these babies grow up, it will cost the NHS to care for them.

But families say the cost should not be a factor, and that Down’s is not a disease that needs to be eradicated. Colette Lloyd, 43, of Oxford, whose daughter Katie, 18, has the condition, said putting a ‘pounds and pence’ valuation on her child’s life ‘harks back to the dark ages’.

She added: ‘We are told that screening is about a woman’s choice, but clearly this is just a smokescreen for the medical professional to absolve themselves of any responsibility and achieve their cost-saving aims.

‘My daughter’s life is worth far more than any costs she may have.’ 

And Paul Critchlow, 48, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said of his 24-year-old daughter Emily: ‘As a parent of a young person with Down’s syndrome, I am appalled at the suggestion that the lifetime cost of caring for children and adults with Down’s should be a factor in determining whether or not they should even be born.’

He said the Royal College had ‘no remit to intervene in this way’, adding: ‘By suggesting that lifetime cost should be factored in, is frankly a step too far and leads us into the murky world of eugenics – who deserves to live and what that life should look like.

‘It is unethical and immoral to even consider the attempt to calculate the lifetime cost of any human being and then measure it against the likely benefit of that person’s life.’






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