The eradication of Down Syndrome with prenatal testing

A child with Down Syndrome, featuring the characteristic facial features of someone with Down Syndrome: almond eyes, flat face, etc. (Found in Advanced Google Image of copyright-free images)

Down Syndrome is the result of having too many copies of chromosome 21, or sometimes having part of chromosome 21 added to another chromosome when one already has two normal copies. Chromosome 21 is the only autosomal chromosome (as in not X or Y) that a human can survive to adulthood with more than two copies of. Down Syndrome is characterized by certain facial features, usually (but not always) some degree of mental impairment, and occasionally physical health problems such as heart defects, although these don’t happen very often. For decades, pregnant people have been going through tests to see if their fetuses have the condition, and between 60 and 90% of parents in America who get a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome get an abortion.1  In general, I’m pro-choice, but there are a lot of differences between just getting an abortion and getting an abortion because your kid would have Down Syndrome. Here’s why selective abortion of fetuses with a diagnosis of Down Syndrome is worse than a regular abortion:

It's discrimination.

In essence, the reason selective abortion is a problem is that it’s selective. Only aborting fetuses with Down Syndrome is ableist, plain and simple. Most potential parents who decide to terminate exclusively because the baby would have Down Syndrome know little to nothing about the disease, and are relying on ableist stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes from their physician. Even some parents who have already decided not to abort have been pressured by their doctors to terminate after a prenatal diagnosis: “quote?”2 Selective abortion of fetuses with Down Syndrome is so popular because people with Down Syndrome or any disability aren’t seen as people, and because parents somehow believe that the world, their lives, or even the child itself will be worse off if a child with Down Syndrome is brought into the world.

Genetic diversity is important!

The reason there are so many species on the earth right now, even though we all used to be one type of single cell organism, is that only the most adaptable individuals of a population survive to reproducing age. The only way to keep a single species around long enough to evolve is if each population of it has enough genetic variation that all of its members have different strengths and weaknesses. If a natural disaster comes along, or a population moves to a different environment, or some other change in habitat makes surviving more difficult (hint hint climate change), some members will be more able to survive and reproduce than others, depending on their genes. If everyone has the same traits, what would kill any certain type of person will make the whole species go extinct.

You may be thinking, “how will keeping disabled people around help the species survive?” but you never know what advantages certain traits or genes have. Paraplegics or people with especially weak legs often have stronger arms than people who can walk, from pushing their wheelchairs. People with sickle cell anemia (or carriers of it) are more resistant to malaria, which is part of how the disease still hasn’t been eradicated with evolution.3 We may not know what traits make it easier for those with Down Syndrome to survive just yet, but we’ll never know what challenges our environment (and other humans) will throw at us until they come.

You never know what to expect.

Another problem with parents testing for Down Syndrome is that it both stems from and leads to the notion that you can control what your child turns out to be. Of course, if you raise them right, they’re less likely to be a serial killer, but for the most part, you have no idea what your kid will be like! And that’s a good thing! Kids are full of surprises, which is one of the great things about having them. But if you would rather get an abortion than have a child with Down Syndrome, can you handle unpredictable things?

Proof that your child has the normal amount of chromosomes doesn’t tell you if they’ll be disabled in another way. They could be deaf or blind, by genetics or by something that happens to them, they could be mentally ill or autistic, or they could get hit by a car and unable to walk for the rest of their life. There are other ways children can surprise you besides disability, too. Your kid could be gay or trans, they could have wildly different interests than you imagined, or they could have political views on the opposite side of the spectrum from yours--I know I’d rather have any sort of disabled child than a Trump supporter. If you can’t handle a child with Down Syndrome, you probably can’t handle any of the other things life can throw at you, especially because some of them are exponentially harder to raise.

People with Down Syndrome can have wonderful lives!

The excuse I hear the most is that the child would have a terrible life, or that the parents would suffer having to take care of them. The thing is, that’s often not the case. Many people with Down Syndrome end up leading happy, fulfilling lives--and their families can attest to their positive contributions to the world.1 People with Down Syndrome can be happy and make positive impacts on the world; they can play sports, write books,4 act in tv shows (take American Horror Story, for example),5 and do pretty much anything else that society expects other people to be able to do. The difference is that people with Down Syndrome aren’t seen as people, and that's what we need to change.

Sources:

1: Chris Kaposy, Choosing Down Syndrome

2: Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch, “The Disability Rights Critique of Prenatal Genetic Testing: Reflections and Recommendations” from anthology Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights (edited by Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch)

3: Mia Rozenbaum “How Sickle Cell Protects Against Malaria”

4: Susan Phillips, “Reproductive Ethics: Is It Ethical to Tamper with the Biological Process?” from CQ Researcher

5: Jamie Brewer from TV show American Horror Story

Note: this was for a writing assignment but I ended up just turning in a Google Doc that looked like a blog because putting pictures in this thing is a pain. I decided to publish it anyway though because it's still interesting.
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