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Andy Imparato, the President of the American Association of People with Disabilities…on “The O’Reilly Factor”.
Unofficial Transcript from June 8
Joining us from Washington is Andy Imparato, the President of the American Association of People with Disabilities….
O’REILLY (to Andy): Mr. Imparato, this is Nazi stuff. If it’s true this guy [Dr. George] Tiller is doing that [performing lots of third trimester abortions on fetuses with Down syndrome and other disabilities]… and you know, we don’t know, because the investigation is still under way… we’re just taking this out of the LA Times, of all places, they had a woman who said, “yeah I didn’t want this Down syndrome baby,” so, boom, the baby’s dead…. How do you react to that?
IMPARATO: Well, you know, I can’t comment on Tiller’s specific circumstances. But the bigger issue here that I think this case brings up is that a lot of women are getting a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and they’re not getting good information about what that means. What does it mean to have a child with Down syndrome? What’s the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome? What are the supports that are out there for families? And our goal at the American Association of People with Disabilities is for parents to get that information, so…
O’REILLY: Yeah, but everybody knows that a Down syndrome child can be a gifted child, ...
IMPARATO: Absolutely...
O'REILLY: ....certainly contribute to society, but there are a lot of people who say, look, I just don’t want that. I don’t want to go through it. You know that.
IMPARATO: Well, and I really don’t think this issue is limited to Down syndrome. We’re getting more and more information prenatally, you know, tests that are being done prenatally….
O’REILLY: Sure, you can get ultrasounds and all of that, sure….
IMPARATO: And there are a lot of people who think disability is a fate worse than death, and, to me, that’s discrimination. And we have a responsibility to let people know, what’s the experience of parents? I appreciate you’re saying that everybody knows that people with Down syndrome can be gifted, but I don’t think everybody does know that. I don’t think everybody knows, for example, that about 80% of people with Down syndrome today are expected to live to be 55 or older. That’s much longer life expectancy than it was even 10 years ago….
O’REILLY: Yeah, well, maybe I should say that the people watching this program know… Maybe you’re right….
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