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Emmerdale: Itv Soap Defends Down's Syndrome Storyline

Emmerdale: ITV Soap Defends Down's Syndrome Storyline3 Hours AgoLaurel (Charlotte Bellamy) And Jai (Chris Bisson) Will Be Seen Dec...

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Emmerdale: ITV soap defends Down's syndrome storyline

3 hours ago

Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy) and Jai (Chris Bisson) will be seen deciding to terminate their pregnancy

Emmerdale producers have defended a forthcoming storyline which will see a couple terminate their pregnancy after being told their unborn child has Down's syndrome.

The announcement of the storyline last week prompted a backlash from some viewers, who said the ITV soap was adding to stigma around the condition.

But series producer Laura Shaw has said the storyline had been well researched.

She also urged people to watch the scenes when they air later this year.

What is the storyline?

A forthcoming plotline will see Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) and Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) delighted when they unexpectedly fall pregnant.

But an early scan will show the pregnancy isn't developing as expected and there is the possibility the baby has a chromosomal condition.

'We were offered 15 terminations of our baby girl'

A world without Down's syndrome?

Down's syndrome abortions 'need 24-week limit'

They decide to have a CVS (chorionic villus sampling) test, which is used to determine chromosomal or genetic disorders in a foetus. The result they receive tells them the baby has Down's syndrome.

Laurel and Jai will then be seen agonising over what to do, before ultimately deciding to end the pregnancy.

Emmerdale already has one character with Down's syndrome - Rhona and Marlon's nine-year-old son Leo.

Why are some viewers objecting?

Some Emmerdale fans and Down's syndrome campaigners said the ITV soap was perpetuating the idea that those with Down's syndrome do not lead lives worth living.

Tim Reid, the co-creator and co-writer of Car Share, tweeted: "Dear Emmerdale, are you confident you've tackled this story in a way your audience with Down's syndrome deserve? Have you taken the same approach you would if characters were choosing to end a pregnancy for reason of gender, race or physical disability?"

Wendy O'Carroll, the founder of support charity Ups and Downs Southwest, voiced her concerns in an open letter to Emmerdale which was widely shared on Facebook.

"Your proposed story will further serve to encourage and confirm the opinion that ending the life of a baby just because it has Down syndrome is perfectly acceptable and understandable because maybe it would be better if fewer people 'like them' were in the world," she said.

"Have you considered for even a moment, how children and adults with Down syndrome who follow your programme will react to two of their favourite characters discovering excitedly that they are to have a baby, and then deciding to terminate the life of that child because it has Down syndrome?"

How have Emmerdale responded?

Emmerdale won the National Television Award for best serial drama earlier this year

Laura Shaw, the series producer for the soap, told journalists on Monday the storyline had been thoroughly researched in collaboration with Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC), medical professionals and people with lived experience.

"We're confident that what we've produced has been done in a really balanced and sensitive way," she said. "We haven't gone into this blindly, we've spoken to as many people as we possibly can. We've got the research, this is based on real life, and I think people will see that.

"You're going to feel uncomfortable at times watching it, but I hope that people will then, as they watch it, understand why we've done it."

She said she knew it would be "contentious" but added that was partly what made it "such an important story to tell".

"I'm sure we'll get some mixed reactions, I'm well aware that it's a hugely emotive subject. But I do honestly think that once everyone has watched the episodes play out, they're going to feel huge sympathy for what an impossible and difficult choice these couples face, and an understanding," she said.

"And what you'll see through Jai and Laurel's story is how that decision goes on to affect their lives for years to come."

Who have Emmerdale worked with on the story?

The producers worked with Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) while the storyline was in development.

Its director, Jane Fisher, said: "Soaps in general tend to be keen on high drama, so I was a bit nervous about how it would be presented. But once I saw the script, all those anxieties went out the window, because it was clear from early stages that such a lot of thought and care had been put into getting this right. So our job as advisers was fairly straightforward."

She added: "I think it's really important that people can speak about this, not that they must, because for many people this is a very painful and private experience. And that's fine, they may not want to talk about it openly. But thy need to know that they can, and at the moment many people feel reticent to talk about what's happened to them because they fear judgement."

Fisher said some parents who deal opt for an abortion "very sadly don't feel they have permission to grieve for the baby they've lost, because they feel implicated in that loss".

She acknowledged the contentious nature of the storyline, and said: "There are going to be people, however well this is portrayed, who are always going to have strong views. But I think the majority of people watching the episodes as written will have an insight into the reality, the complexity."

The Down's Syndrome Association have not been involved with the storyline, but have said in a statement: "The DSA can provide balanced and up-to-date information about Down's syndrome for anyone in Laurel and Jai's position.

"We would encourage anyone in this situation to contact our confidential helpline to talk with our trained staff for non-directive information and support."

What is Down's syndrome?

For between 700 and 1,000 babies born, one will have Down's syndrome, meaning they have an extra chromosome and a learning disability

About 40,000 people in the UK have the condition

Around half of those have congenital heart defects with some requiring surgery

80% of children with the condition are born to women younger than 35

In the 1960s, life expectancy was 15 - it is now between 50 and 60

It's thought around 90% of people in the UK who know their child will be born with Down's syndrome have an abortion

@BBCNewsEnts . If you have a story suggestion email [email protected] .

Marijuhana Danger After Heart Attack

Marijuana Raises Post-Op Dangers After Heart AttackBy Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) --...

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Marijuana Raises Post-Op Dangers After Heart Attack

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Election Day 2020 saw marijuana legalization continue its march across the United States, but a pair of new studies warn that smoking pot could increase risk for heart patients.

Marijuana smokers are more likely to suffer complications like excess bleeding or stroke if they undergo angioplasty to reopen clogged arteries , a University of Michigan-led study found.

Pot smokers who've had a heart attack or needed clogged arteries reopened also are at a greater risk of subsequent heart problems, according to a second study based on national hospital data.

Both studies are scheduled to be presented Nov. 13-17 at an online meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA). Findings presented at meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"As marijuana is becoming more accessible across the U.S., there is a need for rigorous research to better understand the effects of marijuana use on cardiovascular health," said Dr. Sang Gune Yoo, lead author of the first study. He's an internal medicine resident physician.

Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota all voted last week to approve recreational use of marijuana, with pot now fully legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Voters in Mississippi and South Dakota, meanwhile, approved medical marijuana , making the medicinal use of pot legal in 35 states and Washington, D.C.

But much remains unknown about how marijuana affects people's health, Yoo noted.

For their study, Yoo and his team analyzed data from a statewide registry of more than 113,000 patients in Michigan who had angioplasty between January 2013 and October 2016. Of those, nearly 4,000 patients (3.5%) reported smoking pot within a month of their procedure.

In angioplasty, doctors run a tube up through a patient's arteries to the place where they've become narrowed or blocked, and then inflate a tiny balloon to push open the blockage.

Patients were 54% more likely to suffer from potentially dangerous excess bleeding if they had recently smoked pot, the researchers found.

The patients also were 11 times more likely to suffer a stroke after their angioplasty, although the overall risk remained low, with about 0.3% of marijuana users suffering a stroke.

"The odds are markedly increased. The absolute difference is small, but to the patient who suffers that excess stroke, that's a devastating complication," said study co-author Dr. Hitinder Gurm, associate chief clinical officer at the University of Michigan.

The second study evaluated data from the largest publicly accessible database of U.S. hospitalization records, to see how pot users treated for heart problems tended to fare.

Researchers found that 67% of heart attack survivors who used pot had a subsequent heart attack, compared with 41% of nonusers.

Marijuana users also were more likely to land in the hospital for another round of angioplasty or bypass surgery, the researchers found.

"The frequency of recurrent heart attacks and cardiac interventions was higher among cannabis users, even though they were younger and had fewer risk factors for heart disease ," lead researcher Dr. Rushik Bhuva said in an AHA news release. He's a cardiology fellow with the Wright Center for Community Health in Scranton, Pa.

Not all the data related to pot use was negative, however.

Yoo's study found that marijuana smokers were less likely to suffer acute kidney injury as a result of their angioplasty compared with nonsmokers, and Bhuva's study found that cannabis users had significantly lower rates of high blood pressure , diabetes and high cholesterol.

Researchers said there's still too little known about how marijuana affects the body.

"We know previous studies have shown marijuana affects multiple organ systems in the body, including the heart, including the platelets," Yoo said. "It's an important research question that needs to be further pursued."

Until more is known, patients and doctors should be on alert for potential side effects related to pot, said AHA marijuana expert Robert Page, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Colorado in Aurora.

"I treat cannabis as a pharmacist just like I would any other medication, and when you prescribe any medication, it's going to have drug interactions and side effects," he said.

"Just because something is natural does not make it 100% safe," Page continued. "Therefore we need to be treating cannabis like we would any other medication, and that irregardless of medicinal or recreational, it carries side effects."

Interestingly, in Bhuva's study, cannabis use rose by 250% among patients who had either survived a heart attack or had a procedure to reopen blocked arteries.

Heart patients might instead want to lay off pot, Yoo said, or at least make sure doctors know they use marijuana if they wind up needing another procedure.

"If you are an operator who's doing a procedure, knowing that the patient is at a high risk of bleeding might make you want to consider more strongly some bleeding mitigation approaches," like avoiding strong blood thinners , Yoo said.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more about

marijuana and heart health .

SOURCES: Sang Gune Yoo, M.D., internal medicine resident, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Hitinder Gurm, M.B.B.S., associate chief clinical officer, University of Michigan Health System; Robert Page, Pharm.D., M.S.P.H., professor, clinical pharmacy, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado, Aurora; online presentation, American Heart Association meeting, Nov. 13-17, 2020

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