ing at her stricken daughter and said,
"God, I'm ready now. You can take
her."
Looking back on her ordeal, Terri
feels strongly about genetic testing.
) She has told Joy that she is a carrier
and to get pre-marital screening
when the time is right.
"You're making a decision that's
life and death. You need all of the
facts. When you come up against
genetic things, it's wise to do it. It
) eliminates a lot of pain and anguish
later on."
Knowledge is a weapon in the
fight against Tay-Sachs, but
sometimes knowing the risks can't
defeat the genetic odds. Some Detroit
area couples know first-hand how dif-
ficult that is. They've had to face the
• bitter decision of terminating a Tay-
Sachs pregnancy and, knowing the
risks, went on to have healthy
• children.
Sandy and Ted Brown (not the
couple's real name) are enormously
grateful for their son and daughter —
their two "miracle babies." Both San-
dy and Ted are Tay-Sachs carriers,
that fact discovered after a spon-
taneous decision to attend one of
Sinai Hospital's first Tay-Sachs
screenings in 1973.
Shortly afterward, Sandy was also
informed she was pregnant. It was a
double shock. "I was like a raving
lunatic," she recalls. Part of me said,
`It's going to be O.K.' The other part
said, 'You gotta adjust to reality,
because this baby could be affected.' "
The Browns underwent extensive
genetic counseling at Henry Ford
Hospital, where they were presented
with options if the baby was afflicted
with Tay-Sachs. "We could have the
baby and literally watch it die; we
could put it up for adoption, institu-
tionalize it, or terminate the baby."
For Sandy, there was no choice but
to have a therapeutic abortion. "I
wasn't going to watch the baby die."
That was the first of three times
the Browns had to make the awful
deicsion to abort a fetus. One of the
> things that kept them going was the
knowledge that high-risk couples can
have healthy children. After a mour-
ning period, the Browns decided to try
once more — again the amniocentesis,

again the wait, the bad news, the
abortion, and the mourning. A spon-
taneous miscarriage followed a year
later. By this time, Sandy was serious-
ly wondering, "Why us? Maybe we
weren't meant to have children."

Then, her first "miracle" happen-
ed. By her own admission Sandy's
daughter wasn't planned and when
she found out she was pregnant, a
mix of emotions raced through her. "I
had had enough. As bad as I wanted

Free Screenings

The Jewish News, Sinai
Hospital of Detroit and the Dor
Yeshorim organization are co-
sponsoring free Tay-Sachs screen-
ings on Sunday at five suburban
locations.
The Dor Yeshorim approach, en-
dorsed by the Council of Orthodox
Rabbis of Greater Detroit, keeps the
blood test results secret until mar-
riage is contemplated. A couple can
then find out if they can bear non-
Tay-Sachs children. Neither in-
dividual is told whether they carry
the Tay-Sachs gene.
For Orthodox Jews, abortion is
not an option if a fetus with Tay-
Sachs is conceived.
In the general testing, in-
dividuals will be told within a few
weeks if they carry the Tay-Sachs
gene. If both a husband and wife are

Thy-Sachs carriers and want to bear
children, they are offered genetic
counseling. Such a couple bearing
a Tay-Sachs child could choose
abortion.
Sites which will utilize the Dor
Yeshorim approach on Sunday are:
• Beth Jacob School for Girls,
14 Mile/Lahser area, 10:30
a.m.-noon.
• Yeshiva Gedolah, Greenfield
south of 10 Mile, 1-2:30 p.m.
• Jimmy Prentis Morris Jewish
Center, 10 Mile east of Greenfield,
3:30-5 p.m.

General screenings will be con-
ducted at the following sites:
• United Hebrew Schools, 12
Mile east of Lahser, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Jewish Community Center,
Maple at Drake, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

children it can only go so far. I was
happy, but yet I wasn't. I couldn't help
but think that the baby would be af-
fected."
But this time there was joy in-
stead of tears. In May 1977, Sandy
gave birth to a healthy baby girl. "She
almost literally saved my life," says
Sandy. "For the first year and a half,
I just thanked God I had her. I felt in
my heart that God had finally given
us (a baby) and I wasn't going to push
my luck."
When their daughter was a tod-
dler, the Browns once again decided
to risk a pregnancy and they suffered
yet another miscarriage and a
therapeutic abortion. After all they
had endured, the Browns still wanted
to give it one more shot.
"We didn't try and we didn't not
try;' says Sandy. "We wanted to if we
could and that was going to be it.
Besides, the doctors were starting to
get a little nervous about my mental
health" because of the terminations.
That last-ditch attempt resulted in a
healthy baby boy born in February
1982.
Seven tries, two successes — it was
a nine-year ordeal for Sandy and Ted,
making their children all the more
precious to them. It was terribly
rough. Her immediate family was
supportive, as were a handful of close
friends and the counselors at Henry
Ford.
As a way to comfort her, "So-
meone said to me, 'God had already
decided those babies would die. You
just speeded up the process.' " But
Sandy admits that many of her
friends and relatives couldn't unders-
tand her experience.
Some Orthodox family members
couldn't accept the abortions. "In my
heart;' says Sandy, "I know that we
did the right thing . . . I said, 'You
have your beliefs and I have mine.
Please repsect my beliefs: "
Their experiences have made the
Browns strong advocates of Tay-Sachs
screenings and pre-natal testing. So
are Gary and Bobbie Miller of West
Blomfield. The Millers went through
a similar experience, of having to
abort a Tay-Sachs pregnancy.
initial
during
1973,
In
community-wide screenings, Gary's

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

23

