Prenatal Diagnosis . . .

I was searching PubMed late last night to see what was new in the research area of Down syndrome. While there was a pretty good amount (10 or so) of new studies in the area of finding out research to help individuals with Down syndrome, there were alot (15!) of studies in the October issue of the journal, "Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology" for ways to identify babies with Down syndrome in-utero; in the first or second trimesters. This does not count the other studies (there were quite a few of those too) which are published in other medical journals on the subject of prenatal diagnosis of DS.

These studies can be a good thing, if the parents want to know their child has Down syndrome so they can be prepared to meet any of the baby's medical problems at birth. But, sadly, in our society today, these ways to identify a baby with DS in utero, will be used for termination.

Already, there is a horrible statistic that 90% of babies with DS are aborted!

It's too bad so much effort is bing put towards ways in which these babies will be killed (aborted), instead of the much needed research of ways to help these individuals once they are born and through their life.

Yes, there is research which is currently being done to help these individuals, but there is a whole lot more focus on ways to "identify" them in utero.

This is what was Dr. Jerome Lejeune's (discovered Trisomy 21) discouragement,

“To his great despair, however, it became "fashionable" to destroy the patients which could not
be cured. Whereas the results of his research should have led to the advance of medical
knowledge on the road to finding a cure, instead, they were used for the earliest detection of
children suffering from such disorders, and in most cases to destroy them. "