By Andrew Daub
“I’m normal.”
That’s what he said. The YouTuber who aborted his child because the baby had Down syndrome was asked if he was glad his own father didn’t terminate him.
“Yeah of course I’m glad my dad didn’t f***ing terminate me, but I’m normal.”
Sit with that word for a second.
Normal.
He didn’t say “healthy.” He didn’t say “wanted.” He didn’t say “loved.” He said normal. And in that one word, he told you exactly how he sees the world and exactly who gets to live in it.
Here’s the argument he’s actually making, stripped of the “grief” and the medical “statistics” and the careful language about “difficult decisions”: Some lives are normal. Some are not. Normal lives are worth living. The others are not.
That’s it. That’s the mindset. That’s the justification to do whatever the hell you want to anyone you “choose.” That’s the whole thing.
That logic doesn’t stop at birth. It never has. The same reasoning that ends a pregnancy because of a Down syndrome diagnosis is the same reasoning that has historically locked people with Down syndrome in institutions, denied them education, dismissed their humanity, terminated them in gas chambers, and treated them as burdens to be managed rather than as persons to be loved.
If a child with Down syndrome is worth less in the womb—less worthy of life, less deserving of a chance—then that judgment doesn’t magically reverse the moment they’re born. And if we accept that a person with Down syndrome after birth deserves dignity, protection, and love, then we cannot with any logical consistency deny them that same dignity before it.
You cannot wall those two things off from each other.
He just proved it with his own mouth. Again.
And when you broadcast that argument to 20 million people, you don’t just make a personal statement. You give permission. Permission to bully. Permission to exclude. Permission to treat people with Down syndrome as less, because someone with a massive platform just told the world they are.
My son Iron Will has Down syndrome. By this YouTuber’s definition, he is not normal. By every definition that actually matters, he is fully, gloriously, irreducibly human. Made in the image and likeness of God. Not in spite of his extra chromosome. Because of his personhood. Full stop.
The word “normal” has never been more revealing. Or more dangerous.
Because once you decide who is normal enough to live, you haven’t made a personal choice. You’ve appointed yourself the author of a story that was never yours to write.
And that’s not a “difficult decision” . . .
That’s eugenics.
For information on how Team Iron Will helps families who have members with Down syndrome, visit teamironwill.org.