Parenting Children with Down Syndrome with Vinh Nguyen (Podcast)

Alt txt: Image of our guest, Vinh Nguyen, and one of our hosts: Dr. John Anthony Dunne.

In this episode we are joined by Vinh Nguyen to talk about parenting children with Down syndrome. Vinh is a PhD student at McMaster Divinity College, and has served as a pastor in different capacities for over ten years. He is married with three children, one of whom is his daughter, Alli, who has Down syndrome. At the outset of our conversation, Vinh tells us about the circumstances surrounding the news from their OBGYN before Alli was born that she had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome as well as Down syndrome, and the miraculous story of how the left side of her heart formed despite what doctors told them. Vinh shares with us many things that he has learned from his daughter, including about the nature of prejudice, and he also dispels many myths that people have about Down syndrome. We also discuss the matters of ritual participation in the eucharist and baptism, and the implications of resurrection for how we think about the personhood of people with Down syndrome. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne.

Series Disclaimer: We know that this space is fraught, and we don’t speak for every PWD. We may inevitably get some things wrong in this series, but we ask for your patience in advance since we think it’s more important to have the conversation than shy away from it out of fear of saying the wrong thing. At the same time, this is a learning process for all of us, and we want to maintain a posture of learning throughout the series and beyond. Thanks for listening!

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