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UK News

Invest money in Down's Syndrome, don't abort babies urges Christian mother

by Hannah Tooley

Lynn Murray, from campaign group Don't Screen Us Out, is speaking amid warnings a new, more accurate and less risky, screening test for Down's Syndrome in unborn babies could lead to more terminations.

The Health Secretary will be handed a petition against proposal to make the test available on the NHS on Tuesday evening.

Murray, whose 16-year-old daughter has Down's Syndrome, told Premier's News Hour that expectant parents do not know enough about the condition to make educated decisions.

"We feel they present a medical model of Down's Syndrome," she said.

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Money would be better spent on supporting families with a child that has Down's Syndrome rather than terminating their baby, she warned.

"We feel money could be spent on Down's Syndrome itself.

"We've [the NHS] spent a lot of money on screening over the years, and we'll continue to do so and as a result there's very little money spent on research and inclusion strategies and things like that."

The new test would allow the condition to be detected, without the need for a more invasive procedure.

Murray told Premier she is worried the test would lead to mothers aborting babies likely to be born with the condition.

She said that those testing their baby to have the opportunity to prepare for a child with the condition are rare and that the "people you worry about are those that aren't quite sure what they want to do."

"They're the people that are of most concern, because it seems to see that once you start taking tests that you often end up on a conveyer belt - which leads you down one road."

She said the NHS has a responsibility to care for everyone: "They've got to have the proper ethics applied to them in order to ensure that everyone in society is respected."

She went on: "It's something the NHS administers, it's got to have good health benefits."

Listen to Premier's Antony Bushfield speak to Lynn Murray here:

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