A new dad living in Armenia stood his ground to take custody of his infant son who was born with Down Syndrome last month after his wife gave him an ultimatum: Keep the baby or get a divorce.
Samuel Forrest, who is from New Zealand, was unaware that in Armenia the parents of babies born with Down Syndrome have the option of
giving them up, according to ABC News.
Forrest first learned something was wrong with his son, Leo, when the pediatrician came to him after the baby's birth last month.
“She had his face covered up and hospital authorities wouldn't let me see him or my wife. When the doctor came out, he said 'There’s a real problem with your son,'” Forrest told ABC News.
Once Forrest learned of his son’s condition, he was shocked but never once thought of giving him up.
“They took me in see him and I looked at this guy and I said, he's beautiful — he's perfect and I'm absolutely keeping him,” Forrest said. “I got the ultimatum right then. [My wife] told me if I kept him then we would get a divorce."
The mother filed for divorce a week after Leo was born, ABC noted.
Forrest has now started a GoFundMe page to raise the funds to return to New Zealand to raise his son.
On that page, which exceeded the initial $60,000 goal in days and hit more than $350,000 on Friday, Forrest explains how babies and people with disabilities are viewed in Armenia.
“This practice of abandoning children due to disabilities is unfortunately widespread throughout Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, resulting from a culture which refused to accept human defects,” he wrote. “Health professionals estimate that 98 percent of all Down Syndrome babies born in Armenia are abandoned, every year.”
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