You'd think they'd stop at one....
So you're Amish. And you have a profoundly retarded child. And then you decide to have another. And another. And another.
Four in all. Your odyssey is documented in the NY Times, where the reporter talks about the reasons for the high frequency of retarded/handicapped children in the Amish population:
We've been waiting 16 years for an answer," said Mark Kauffman, an Amish farmer whose four profoundly handicapped children thrashed spasmodically in wheelchairs and a crib before the watchful gaze of the visiting physician.
...
The Amish are 12 percent of the local population, but their children represent close to half of the area's most severe cases of mental and physical retardation. The nonprofit Deutsch center will specialize in deciphering and treating dozens of obscure genetic and biochemical disorders the children suffer. Many of these are still unnamed but are considered the result of the "founder effect" — a reference to genetic disorders that become unusually common in an insular population descended, like the Amish, from a small group of progenitors.
Of course, the reporter omitted the (obvious) fact that
Mr. Kauffman must himself be somewhat brain damaged. Not only did he decide to keep having kids after the first one required 24-hour care, the whole situation is (of course) seen as "God's work":
"If anything good comes out of all this," he said as Dr. Wang headed out on his rounds, "we need to give God all honor."
Remember, kids:
If something good happens, god helped you. And if something bad happens, it's god's will.