By Judie Brown
Today is World Down Syndrome Day—a day set aside to focus on the special individuals who are born with Down syndrome. It is a day to cherish their uniqueness and their importance to the human family.
Today is also a day to challenge the twisted thinking of those who believe that a genetic diagnosis of Down syndrome should be a death sentence requiring abortion prior to birth. Such nihilistic attitudes of genetic cleansing have permeated society, not only here in America but around the world.
In the United States, abortion has taken a dramatic toll on preborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome. The same is true in many developed countries where genetic testing is available. Sadly, there are very few Down syndrome babies who survive in some of these nations, with Iceland boasting a 100 percent kill rate for DS babies prior to birth. Lauren Bell reports:
In recent remarks to the Citizens Assembly in Ireland, Dr. Peter McParland, an ob-gyn at National Maternity Hospital, pointed to a sign of things to come.
“In Iceland,” the doctor said, “every single baby—100 percent of all those diagnosed with Down syndrome—are aborted.”
The horrors of the statement above can scarcely be grasped. Iceland has become the first nation to boast of eradicating Down syndrome from its country.
Dr. McParland expounded on this systematic annihilation stating, “There hasn’t been a baby with Down syndrome born in Iceland in the past five years.”
Iceland is not alone in its aspirations to create a “Down syndrome-free” world. The holocaust of Down syndrome babies is a global epidemic, taking the lives of human beings created in the image of God on the basis of a prenatal diagnosis indicating Down syndrome.
Denmark follows closely behind Iceland and predicts it will be a “Down-syndrome free” nation in the next 10 years.
Such reports are not only bone-chilling, but a sober reminder that there is a growing prejudice against children who are affected with conditions that require special care. Genetic cleansing—this deadly form of eugenics—is a desire to purify the human race in ways that should be rejected, not embraced, in a civilized society. This burgeoning attitude of callous disregard for the humanity of these children is reflected everywhere we turn.
For example, in France last November a television council rejected an advertisement featuring a smiling little girl who had Down syndrome because such an ad might have disturbed mothers who aborted their babies because of a diagnosis of DS!
Kurt Kondrich, senior director of development of the Human Coalition, stated, “Individuals with Down syndrome bring unconditional love, genuine purity, and contagious joy into a broken world that desperately needs them, and the devil uses the darkness of abortion to prevent these awesome, beautiful human beings from shining bright light into a culture of death, depravity and deception.”
Kondrich is a former police officer sworn to defend and protect lives, but he points out that medical professionals today can, if they choose, kill with impunity, aborting babies for any reason including genetic challenges like Down syndrome.
So on this World Down Syndrome Day, celebrate the life of every individual human being from the moment God creates them until death. Educate yourself and your family about Down syndrome and these wonderful people. And take a moment to learn about the heroic geneticist, Dr. Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the cause of Down syndrome and who worked hard to show the dignity of people with DS.
