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Heart and Soul: The Right Thing: A life worth living?

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The Right Thing: A life worth living?

05/03/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The Right Thing: A life worth living?

A Down’s syndrome diagnosis leads to hard choices and a complicated journey

A Down’s syndrome diagnosis leads to hard choices and a complicated journey.

Mike Wooldridge explores another story of faith and hard decisions. When American Beth Ball was pregnant with her first child, she found out that the baby had Down’s syndrome. Upon receiving the diagnosis, she says she was shocked at the heavy hints that she should terminate the pregnancy, and outdated information made available. For Beth and her husband Stephen, both Christians, the next months were a struggle, emotionally and spiritually. At one point, Beth prayed that if she was unable to cope with a baby with Down’s syndrome, God would take it away.   
 
But then things were to change for the Ball family, and several times. Alongside Beth and Stephen, Mike hears from Dr Francis Hickey, an expert in Down’s syndrome, Michelle Sie Witten, President of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, their Pastor Bill Cahoun, and the family of Jack Holm, a young man with Down’s syndrome who inspired them to re-imagine the future. 
 
Producer: Paul Arnold

(Photo: DNA helix illustration. Credit: Getty Images)

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