★★★★★ 0/5

Families angered by "appalling" All Saints story

3
Leave a comment

Advocacy group, Down Syndrome Australia is lobbying major advertisers to boycott All Saints after insinuating children with Down syndrome stem from incest.

In an episode which aired on May 27, a brother and sister who were having an incestuous relationship were told their unborn child was likely to have Down syndrome as a consequence.

The group has sought legal advice and is lodging formal complaints with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Federal Government ministers. Some families are demanding a public apology by Seven.

“All Saints has stigmatised every person with Down syndrome and their families,” said Dr Peter Sloan of Down Syndrome Australia told the Daily Telegraph.

“We already know of one instance where a child has been victimised because of this episode.”

On Seven’s own website, some viewers have left angry comments:
“I am a mother of a beautiful 5yr old who has Down Syndrome. My issue with tonight’s episode is that in explaining the incestuous relationship and the subsequent pregnancy why did the writers have to single out Down Syndrome as the “birth defect”? Why the negative spin re Down Syndrome?”

“I was appalled with this episodes storyline – the viewer is left with the idea that Down Syndrome may be caused by the incestuous relationship – this is completely untrue and creates stigma and prejudice against people with Down Syndrome and their parents.”

“Down Syndrome is in no way caused by incest – all our family will never watch this show again, I hope the there is a public apology to all people with Down Syndrome and their parents.”

Leading geneticist Dr David Amor at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute said: “There is absolutely no increase in the risk of Down syndrome for the offspring of incestuous relationships.”

Producers of All Saints have denied any wrongdoing.

Source: news.com.au, yahoo7

3 Responses

  1. This is not a comment but a question, I didn’t see the show myself. Is there a lady standing up for the rights of people with down syndrome? I am in the middle of court proceedings concerning a 16 year old boy who has down syndrome and could really use some help. I need this urgently as the court case is next Tuesday 9th February, 2011.
    Please reply as soon as possible.
    Thank you very much

  2. The cause of the possible defect wasn’t stated. It’s not like Jack said – “This baby has Down’s syndrome, and your incest caused it!”

    He said something like “Might have Down’s … Incestuous relationships can cause birth defects” to try and splash cold water on their unashamed tryst. Morally, I’m far more worried about them “glorifying” incest.

    If Jack had said “This baby seems to have Down’s syndrome, and there is an 88% chance that some of your eggs carry the defective chromosome”, would women everywhere be ringing radio stations to ban All Saints? If so, you shouldn’t – its just an example of a doctor being inappropriate, and it happens all the time to both sexes.

  3. with everything that is going wrong at Seven at the moment – losing court cases, questionable story lines, news readers addicted to hair spray, I have heard that David Leckie has been asked to be put back into his coma and to wake him when the olympics start

Leave a Reply