"Life With Anthony"

What would you do if you could know ahead of time that your child would have a life-long disability? Because Trisomy 21 can be detected during pregnancy, Lisa Spellman asks herself this very question in Margaret Renkyl’s article, “Life With Anthony.” According to this article, about 90% of pregnancies that test positive for Down Syndrome are aborted, but Lisa claims that if she had had the test and knew Anthony would have the disability, she would have carried the pregnancy to term anyway. What is most interesting about this article, however, is the words used to describe Anthony and his disability. The title, for example, gives a hint to the strange word-play to come, because the first thing that comes to mind after reading “Life With Anthony” is “Life Without Anthony.” In this way, I feel the young boy is equated with and identified by his disability. This kind of labeling can create stigma. The word choice of the section headers in the article will be discussed to show the pessimistic representation of disability.

The first section header is “Devastating news,” implying that Anthony’s initial diagnosis of Down Syndrome was a terrible tragedy; devastation is a term used to describe natural disasters, ruin, and death. It should not be used to describe the diagnosis of a little boy. The next section title is “Coming to terms,” which echoes the tragic quality assigned to Anthony’s diagnosis. When I think of the phrase “coming to terms,” I think of dealing with unavoidable crises. While Anthony’s disability came as a surprise, his family’s reaction is darkened by being described by this phrase. The final header in the article is “Fears and hopes.” By placing the word fear in front of hope, Down Syndrome is once again described in terms of devastation. One wonders what there is to be afraid of; Trisomy 21 is a disability, not a convicted kidnapper or murderer. The fear and stigma of Anthony’s disability seem to overshadow the fact that he can still have a good and productive life. This article is very telling of the stigma attached to disability, and it seems possible that these word choices were even accidental, or without such intention. Most of the headers in “Life With Anthony” clearly imply trepidation and doom for a little boy, and these headers are all assigning meaning to the label of disability that has been bestowed upon him.

article - http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/02/13/par.life.with.anthony/index.html?iref=newssearch