News reports that more parents are choosing to keep Down’s syndrome babies have been rubbished by doctor Ben Goldacre in his Bad Science column.
The reports stemmed from a Radio 4 documentary presented by actress Felicity Finch and were picked up by the Times (“Down’s births increase in a caring Britain“) and the Mail (“More babies are choosing to keep their babies when diagnosed with Down’s syndrome”).
Goldacre reports that the number of women with antenatal diagnosis of Down’s syndrome who choose to terminate their pregnancies has remained static at nine out of ten since 1989.
The stories have also been refuted on the Behind the Headlines section of the NHS Choices website.
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Goldacre notes that no-one has published a clarification.
Born with Down’s has been removed from the BBC’s Listen Again service.
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