Newbury Town Library

Choosing Naia, a family's journey, Mitchell Zuckoff

eng

Includes bibliographical references

no index present

non fiction

Choosing Naia

bibliography

49750319

Mitchell Zuckoff

a family's journey

A meticulously researched, empathetic account, expanded from a series Zuckoff wrote for the Boston Globe, about a young couple’s decision to continue with a pregnancy after they learned the baby had Down’s syndrome. Though this is a story about one particular couple, the issues raised—the availability of increasingly sophisticated prenatal testing, the option of legal abortion, and society’s response to mental retardation—have wider implications. As he chronicles the challenges faced by grad student Greg Fairchild and wife Tierney Temple-Fairchild, who manages education programs for United Technologies, Zuckoff also comprehensively details attitudes toward and treatment of Down’s syndrome, meets with geneticists and prenatal specialists, talks to family and friends. The account begins in June 1998, when Tierney undergoes a prenatal examination called a triple screen, a follow-up to a routine blood test and results show that the baby has a heart defect that might indicate Down’s. As they consult experts, the couple wrestles with the question of abortion. They have about three weeks to decide; Tierney is 21 weeks pregnant, and Connecticut law allows elective abortion only through the 24th week