Fathers, say yes to your children!
He looks cuddly, the old, red Steyr tractor from the year 1962, with its happy-yellow wheels. Sure, with its 17 hp, he is not the fastest. But even if he does not manage to do some tracks without help, he rattles in our hearts in no time.
Cord Large sees in the tractor a symbol for people with Down syndrome. That's why the 48-year-old teacher from Berlin did not hesitate for long, bought the tractor and crossed with him - sometimes on a loader - the Alps. On the way from South Tyrol back to Berlin his six-year-old son Torin and his girlfriend Matilda were sitting next to him. Both were born with Down syndrome.
The one-week trip was the prelude to the campaign "fathers say yes". Cord wants to encourage large parents to choose a Down Syndrome child. "The idea came to my mind a few weeks ago in the morning," says the father of six-year-old twins.
The kid or me!
There is always a need for discussion. It is estimated that nine out of ten children with Down syndrome are aborted - not least because of the increasingly used screening tests. If a disability or serious illness is detected in the unborn child, abortion is still allowed by law even in the ninth month. However, the termination of pregnancy is not officially based on the disability, but rather on not endangering the mother's physical and mental health.
In Germany live about 50,000 people with Down syndrome. With one in every 700 births, it is the most common chromosomal disorder. Great has the experience that especially the fathers urge their women to an abortion. "I have often experienced a man separating from his partner when their child is diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, or they are faced with the choice: the child or me!"
Did we do something wrong?
For him, too, the diagnosis was a shock, says Cord Gross. His wife and he had deliberately decided against a prenatal test. Only three days after the delivery, they learned that his daughter was healthy but his son was born with Down syndrome. Cord Gross reproached himself: "Have we waited too long for the childbearing? Have we done something wrong? - Such questions are already going through your head," he says. Despite everything, he immediately took his son Torin to heart. "If you put such a worm on your stomach, you can not help it!"
He feels life with Torin as enrichment. "Of course, our lives were upside down - just the first years were fierce," he recalls. "Children with Down syndrome are more likely to be ill than others." But the beaming laughter, the carefree, loving nature of his son compensate him for any supposed additional burden. Currently, Gross is exempt from his job as a teacher to devote himself entirely to his family and now to the campaign. He wants to encourage expectant parents to face the challenge - and show how much happiness a child with Down syndrome can make.
Ascended: Actor Jürgen Vogel (right) drove a piece with Cord Gross and his son Torin. He supports the action "fathers say yes".
© Sonja MuhrA prominent comrade has already found Groß: The actor Jürgen Vogel, whose youngest child goes to the same kindergarten as Torin, the last piece of the Brandenburg Gate on the tractor has come along. "Many people think that parents are unhappy if they have a child with Down syndrome, but it does not have to be that way," he says. Even outside Germany, "fathers say yes" meets with enthusiasm. Even from Namibia, Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip were already supporting words. On the Campaign Facebook page, other fathers of children with Down syndrome show pictures of themselves.
"I want to initiate a debate and maybe help one or the other Down syndrome child to be welcome in this world," says Groß. With the right support you can give the children the chance to develop and show their strengths. Last but not least, increasing the knowledge about people with Down Syndrome can induce expectant parents to choose their own child's life and to stand up for their place in society.
Not every preliminary examination has to be
"We are outraged by China, where girls are often aborted, and even kill 95 percent of children with Down's syndrome, sometimes just before birth." For me, the end of the long partial shadow of the Third Reich is only reached when children in Germany should no longer be killed because they are mentally handicapped, they should have the same right to life as healthy people, "demands Cord Gross.He is not fundamentally against prenatal diagnosis, but you could ask the doctor, for example, only to highlight serious health risks such as a heart defect that make an immediate pre- or post-natal surgery seem necessary.
With the medical profession Groß goes to the court: "A Pränataldiagnostiker who prepares to kill primarily, one can agree with a clear conscience to be a doctor," he says. For this is the force of the Hippocratic Oath committed to protecting life - "regardless of whether it is the life of a 'normal' or a Down syndrome man - I suggest these prenatal diagnosticians, the word doctor from their practice shield That would be at least honest. "
That he provokes it - and possibly offends parents who have aborted their child - is gross aware. But who wants to start a debate, needs a basis for discussion.
