Pastor heals Down syndrome prenatally with prayer!

Gilbert Chae speaking

Um, no he didn’t. But this story reveals why screening tests are just that, and why a definitive diagnosis can only come from invasive diagnostic testing.  

Here’s the story of miracles being performed at a large church in Seoul, South Korea:

Dr. Gilbert Chae, Chairman of the World Christian Doctors Network (WCDN), delivered an extraordinary case study before some 240 Christian doctors and medical professionals from 38 countries at a unique conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, in which he said that some 21 women from his church, who were at “high risk” for Down’s syndrome, gave birth to “normal babies” after receiving prayer.

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“Those who have Down’s syndrome will live with it their whole life. If a pregnant woman finds out that her baby belongs to the Down’s syndrome high risk group, how would she feel? Even if she is fearless, she must be devastated.”

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“To my regret, I could not get their medical records except for eight children, because their healing took place long time ago. The first child’s QUAD test result was 1:60 (one to sixty), belonging to very high risk group. The second child was 1:216. The third child was 1:100. The fourth child was 1:41, a very high risk group. The fifth child was 1:100. The sixth child was 1:69. The seventh child was 1:33. This is the highest so far and the eighth child was 1:267.

“Of course, there are other thorough exams like amniocentesis, amnioscopy, high resolution ultra sound, but they might have their own dangers and false negativity. They also cost very much. But many members of Manmin Central Church have firm faith that even Down’s syndrome can be healed by receiving prayer from Rev. Jaerock Lee, and they did not take further exams, but just received his prayer.

“All the couples that received prayer gave birth to a normal baby. God is almighty. He can change the abnormality of zillions of chromosomes in a moment. …”

Convinced? Was this a miraculous healing of “zillions of chromosomes” through prayer?

Or, is it the case that each of these pregnancies were simply false positives. Even the report showed that for each case, the odds remained higher that the woman did NOT have a child with Down syndrome, than that she did.

What I hope this story shows is how a screening test is just that. It has false positives and false negatives. No matter how accurate at detection, if it’s a screening test, then there’s still the chance the result is a false positive.

This is why all of the professional guidelines emphasize that whenever an expectant mother receives a screen result, she should confirm that result through diagnostic testing prior to making any decision to terminate the pregnancy. This goes for even the new blood test for Down syndrome offered by Sequenom, Ariosa, Natera, and Verinata. Even with its promised accuracy, non-invasive prenatal testing remains a screening test.

If you read this story of miraculous healing with the measure of skepticism it deserves, then hopefully you’ll also apply that skepticism to the claimed accuracy of prenatal screening tests and seek confirmation prior to any irrevocable decision being made about a pregnancy.