Would you want your mentally disabled (adult) child to have children?

Question

I saw a preview for a show on TV about adults with down syndrome (Born This Way, I think is what the name is). They were talking about getting/being married and were holding babies talking about becoming parents. It got me thinking about if I had a child that had down syndrome or another mental disability, would I want her/him to have children? I came to the conclusion that I would want my child to be as independent as possible and get married and have a fulfilling intimate relationship with their significant other but I don't know that I would be 100% comfortable with them having and being responsible for a child. What do you think? If you had a mentally disabled child would you want them to have children one day?

Answer

It depends on the severity of the disability. If they aren't able to take care of the baby independently without serious worry then no.

Answer

If a person with mental disabilities can come up with plans for their lives and communicate them then they most likely have the capacity to make those decisions.

Answer

Why is it your decision what your grown child does? You don't get to decide.

Answer

I have seen them be responsible for many things and I believe they should be allowed to have a family all their own. If their child has down syndrome as well just share with them the importance of patience and how hard it would be. In the end I would want then to make their own choices and not regret something I told them because I wasn't comfortable I would want them to prove me and everyone else wrong.

Answer

There are a lot of strong independent individuals with Down syndrome, I don't want to take away from the seriousness of mental conditions , but Down syndrome isn't necessarily that bad (forgive my wording I really don't mean to offend anyone)

Answer

Depends. If they can't fully take care of themself then they can't take care of a child.

Answer

There are different levels of being mentally disabled. So if my kid was dependent on me for a lot of things and couldn't take care of themself, then no, they can't take care of a baby.

Answer

It depends if they are capable of holding a job and handle stress and taking care of themselves without assistance then yes they can have children. Same rules apply to everyone.

Answer

It would depend on how my child functions and if they would be mentally and physically able to care for a child....if they themselves need help with daily living then it would definitely be a no.

Answer

It depends! I work with mentally ill people, which is kind of different from mentally disabled people but I also work with a few of them too...some of the ones I work with I could see being 100% capable. Others, I don't think they would be able to cope with that. Regardless of the illness or disability, each person still has their own functionality so it's more about the specific person vs the disability.

Would you want your mentally disabled (adult) child to have children?

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