It was revealed last week that Emmerdale will explore the devastating decision of ending a pregnancy, after Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) and Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) discover that their child will be born with Down’s syndrome.
The story in question sees mainstay Laurel discover that she is pregnant, and she and Jai are over the moon as a result.
A scan will then reveal that not all is as it should be. The couple will be told their pregnancy isn’t developing as expected and that there is the possibility the baby has a chromosomal condition.
Laurel and Jai decide to have the CVS (chorionic villus sampling) test, and the result they receive informs them the baby has Down’s syndrome.
The couple subsequently have some very deep emotional conversations, before ultimately making the very sad decision not to proceed with the pregnancy.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk about why Emmerdale have decided to explore this subject, Producer Laura Shaw said: ‘I think sometimes when a story idea is first pitched, it’s an instant: “Yes that’s brilliant, let’s do it”, or it’s an instant: “God no, let’s definitely not do that”.
‘When this idea was first pitched it was very much: “Oh, we don’t know”. We needed to research it and find out as much as we could, then we could make an informed decision on whether it was something we wanted to play or not.
‘As soon as we’d done that research, we knew it was a really important story to tell. 5,000 women a year decide to have a termination after having a positive test for chromosomal abnormalities.
‘It’s still a hugely taboo subject, though, and having spoken to the charity and spoken to people with lived experience, it was heartbreaking to hear how many women and men go through this but don’t speak to anyone about it, through fear of being judged or shamed.
‘As a producer, I’m always nervous about any story that we produce to be honest, but definitely more so when you know that it’s going to be quite contentious and people are going to have some really strong views. I suppose that’s why it’s such an important story to tell.’
There has already been a strong response to the story since the announcement was made last week. Speaking in response, Laura added: ‘Please watch it. Please just watch it before you make any opinions.
‘As you’ve probably gathered by now, 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.’
‘What do I hope viewers will take away from it? I just hope they’ll take away that what we’ve shown isn’t about right or wrong. It isn’t about whether you agree or not, it’s just about people making really difficult decisions and they should be allowed to do that without living in fear of being judged or shamed.’
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