Lifelong Effects

This picture was taken from the following website:
http://www.lucinafoundation.org/assets/hydrocephalus.jpg

This past Sunday, October 10th, 2010, I watched a movie with my mom and sister at home on the Hallmark Channel called "Follow the Stars Home." It was produced in 2001 and starred Kimberly Williams-Paisley. It was aired from 4:45 - 7:00 pm. Essentially, the movie started out with a romantic love story between a couple who got together after meeting when the lady did some work for her future groom's brother. Before they knew it, they found out the wife (played by Williams-Paisley) was pregnant. After one of the sonograms, they received some bad news from the doctor. The baby was discovered to have genetic defects. The bad news was, unfortunately, only confirmed when the couple got a second opinion. Upon the wife's decision to keep the baby, her husband promptly left her, claiming he didn't want to have anything less than a perfect child. He wanted her to get an abortion as soon as they found out, but she decided to continue with the pregnancy. Before the child was born, the wife's brother-in-law (who introduced the couple and was also a doctor) did a further examination on the baby still in utero. He found the baby girl, if carried to full-term, would have fluid on the brain, also known as hydrocephalus (and pictured above), in addition to spinal cord and central nervous system damage, as well as poor development of the heart and lungs. Several surgeries would be needed to induce the development necessary for the baby's correct growth. She would not be able to walk, talk, and she would have a hard time breathing. Worst of all, though, her predicted life span was a mere six years. The movie went on to show the baby and her struggle throughout her life, as well as the constant and tedious way her mother and grandmother cared for her. Eventually, the drama re-entered the movie to add to the storyline, but a synopsis of the scientific part of the movie is given above.

I learned a lot from watching this movie. First, life is never easy. My eyes were opened to the role of parents when children are at such a young age. Even working with newborn babies at the hospital has not revealed this to me. It really made me think because, as a girl, I may be in that position one day, and it caused me to ponder about what I would do if this situation occurred later in my life. The last decision is ultimately left up to me because the baby would be growing in my body, but should my opinion on this sort of issue interfere with my marriage? If so, what is the cut-off point where things should only get my opinion as compared to my husband's? If not, where do you draw the line as to what really should be considered fairly in a marriage, concerning the birth of the first child? This relates to our class, of course, because it is a genetic disease, although it was never named specifically, that affected the physical and mental development of the child. A mutation somewhere in the process of fertilization and cleavage caused a child's life to end significantly earlier than her peers. Previously in class, we also discussed some of the ethical issues that come with certain diseases -- an issue that was brought up by the viewing of this movie. I'm really glad I watched this movie, and it was nice for me to see that the things we are learning in class really do relate to life outside the classroom.