Should we use plastic surgery to make our Down's daughter be

Admin Number of posts : 287 Age : 46 Registration date : 2008-01-24

Daily Mail - 2 Mar 2008

Quote :: Chelsea Kirwan is brutally frank about the moment she learnt her newborn daughter had Down's syndrome.
"I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach by the world," she says.

The news also devastated her husband Laurence, a plastic surgeon well used to the horrors of working in burns units and with victims of earthquakes.

"This was the first time I'd seen him actually need to sit down because he was so shaken," says Chelsea.

All the joy the couple should have felt at the birth of their new baby failed to materialise.

Instead, they were overwhelmed by shock, as would any new parents on being given such news.

Yet their story comes with an extraordinary irony.

For the couple make their fortune from the quest for physical perfection - to become parents of a daughter with Down's syndrome may have, to say the least, profoundly challenged their ideas of what beauty is, whether it resides in the spirit or the body and whether cosmetic surgery is truly worthwhile...

Is anyone else as weirded out as me when they read this?

Quote :: "It was really only after her first birthday I knew Ophelia was a blessing. None of us can contemplate a future without her.

What a shame it took them that long to realise this.

Quote :: "He wouldn't operate on her himself, he would get the best person he knew to do it - but only if she wanted it and he could see that it could enhance her quality of life.

How will she know if she needs it? I suspect that these parents are always going to be judging this little girl by her looks. They are going to be the ones that make her aware of her looks and that she needs changing.

The whole time i was reading this i got the feeling that even though they said that they loved her now,i didnt actually believe them.
This story made me sad and i even left a bad comment after i read it too!

Amarlismum I read the whole thing to
I did think though that they do love her now i just think they are so plastic they will be having surgery for any of their children . And yes I agree with you her looks will never live up for them and they will make her feel she needs PS to
ho they sux so bad

I don't think the first quote is weird. It actually took me 6mths to bond with my first child. The whole 'new parent' shock to the system totally took me by surprise. So I could imagine that for someone who lives by profiting from valuing external beauty might take a little longer to bond...??

I think the whole cosmetic surgery thing is such a big debate...so many people have it now for all sorts of reasons. It's just the norm for us to change hair, get piercings, tattoos, wear makeup, have facelifts etc. Not saying that anyone here necessarily does but society as a whole sees these things as normal.

Personally, I couldn't do it and would certainly not encourage my daughter to do it. I'm finding it difficult to come to terms with the idea of my other daughter getting her ears pierced!

Interesting story...

Cas

Amarlismum - yes I found that a bit weird, but then Cas's comments put that in perspective. I guess it's weird to me cos I never had those feelings at all.

Yes, I beleive she will never live up to their expectations where looks are concerned. You can tell the mum has had her share of surgery already!

I think the biggest issue is that when you take away the DS features you are left with a person who looks "normal" but will of course still have the mental impairment, then she becomes an outcast cos she's "so dumb" kind of thing.

One of the blessings to me of Andy having DS is that everyone knows! They make allowances because they can see it. I see the pain that parents of austistic children go through, that to me is what would happen when you try to make a childs with DS look "normal".

Admin Number of posts : 287 Age : 46 Registration date : 2008-01-24

Patricia E Bauer - 17 Mar 2008

Quote :: Laurence and Chelsea Kirwan have issued statements refuting a story by Bonnie Estridge in the [UK] Daily Mail in which he was quoted as saying that he “may well consider” plastic surgery to alter the facial features of their daughter Ophelia, who has Down syndrome. They say the story was obtained under false pretenses, and that their comments were taken out of context. Laurence Kirwan is a plastic surgeon with offices in the U.S. and London.

The Kirwans also criticized a followup article in the Daily Mail by writer Amanda Cable. That article is no longer available for viewing on the Daily Mail’s website, but is referenced here.

In an email to this website, the Kirwans wrote:...