A mother of an engaged girl with Down syndrome has spoken out and revealed why she doesn’t want her daughter to have children of her own.
As Maria admitted, she is proud of her 24-year-old daughter Maria and her 22-year-old boyfriend Ryan but doesn’t want them to start their own family because they both have Down’s syndrome.
The mother spoke out and revealed how the young couple is planning to start a family soon. While she fully supports their relationship, she opposes their idea of having kids of their own because she fears she will be the one responsible for looking after them.
“There is no way that Alex and Ryan will have children. Under no circumstances, because it would up be to Glen and I to help raise it and we’re aging,” Maria said in a documentary called Love Me As I Am: Untold Australia.
“We just couldn’t possibly raise another child. No. They can have a dog.”
As the mother went on to claim, Alex and Ryan most likely wouldn’t be able to raise their children without their parents’ help.
While some viewers understood the mother’s perspective and applauded her for being honest enough to address the matter, not everyone agreed that the mother should have any say in her daughter’s family planning.
Joining the opposition was also the director of Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, Michelle O’Flynn, who slammed the mum for her ‘insensitive’ comments.
“First of all, people with disabilities and people with Down syndrome have the same rights to bodily integrity, to family and relationships as any of us and it’s not the decision of the parents,” she said in an interview with Daily Mail Australia.
“People are making great leaps of judgement about, not only the capacity of their own children to be parents, but also their capacity to even have children.”
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