Posted on 08/15/2017 7:34:10 AM PDT by EdnaMode
With the rise of prenatal screening tests across Europe and the United States, the number of babies born with Down syndrome has significantly decreased, but few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland.
Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women -- close to 100 percent -- who received a positive test for Down syndrome terminated their pregnancy.
While the tests are optional, the government states that all expectant mothers must be informed about availability of screening tests, which reveal the likelihood of a child being born with Down syndrome. Around 80 to 85 percent of pregnant women choose to take the prenatal screening test, according to Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik.
"CBSN: On Assignment" headed to Iceland with CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano to investigate what's factoring into the high termination rates.
Using an ultrasound, blood test and the mother's age, the test, called the Combination Test, determines whether the fetus will have a chromosome abnormality, the most common of which results in Down syndrome. Children born with this genetic disorder have distinctive facial issues and a range of developmental issues. Many people born with Down syndrome can live full, healthy lives, with an average lifespan of around 60 years.
Other countries aren't lagging too far behind in Down syndrome termination rates. According to the most recent data available, the United States has an estimated termination rate for Down syndrome of 67 percent (1995-2011); in France it's 77 percent (2015); and Denmark, 98 percent (2015). The law in Iceland permits abortion after 16 weeks if the fetus has a deformity -- and Down syndrome is included in this category.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Slippery, meet slope.
Pure evil
Wow!! This is reported as wonderful news?!?!
A brave new world.
Eugenics is alive and well.
It’s NOT disappearing. ..they are just snuffing out the evidence.
I shudder to think about Iceland’s cures for cancer and the common cold.
That is absolutely chilling.
Although I would not like it at all, I can see how a country might possibly try to justify eliminating genes for something like albinoism. I believe this would be extremely difficult, but — theoretically — once you get rid of anyone with that genetic marker, you would never see albinoism again.
Downs, on the other hand, isn’t like that, I believe Downs is caused by chromosome damage and cannot ever be “removed” from a gene pool. It is an inherent risk.
So Iceland is a country which just wants to cull the unwanted from society. An unending process. An ever-expanding goal. Slippery slope indeed.
Quite a few years ago I noticed the decline of DS children here in the U.S..
Almost without exception I found these people to be gentle,good natured and *entirely* harmless *even when* they were ill...sometimes quite ill.They were grateful for what you did for them.
Yes,most of them cannot support themselves or care for themselves but there are plenty of older folks who can't either.
Everything I've read about Iceland in recent years suggests to me that its people are particularly filthy and amoral.
it is a slippery slope. What’s next?
Abort any babies with a predisposition to various diseases, cancers, when such tests are developed?
We have lost certain moral values, certain ethics.
It’s not disappearing...they’re eliminating them.
In India, it is against the law for a doctor to tell anyone the sex of the child before birth.
...”few countries have come as close to eradicating Down syndrome births as Iceland”
Awful. As if these kids are a disease to be “eradicated”.
Wake up to what is happening.
Silly me. I thought this article was about some advance in medicine that would prevent a Down’s syndrome child from being conceived. But instead it’s about simply killing them before birth.
This woman, a Harvard Law School grad and successful writer married to a successful writer, had a second trimester abortion because her baby had Trisomy something, the scientific way of saying Down Syndrome. The essay was published in Salon magazine and in her book of essays and was met with acclaim: 95% of the comments to the article praised her, many praising her specifically for being a “good mother”!
Here's something I think about often. Homosexuality and obesity are two conditions that probably involve genetic predispositions. It is perfectly acceptable to abort babies that would have Down Syndrome, right? Yet, when the “gay gene” and the “fat gene” are identified, and women start abortion fat, gay babies, you KNOW there will be an outcry.
This is why this country is no less ne’er blessed. Everything flows from this. God does not take kindly to the murder of innocent children.
They sure have ‘cured’ that problem!
All those dead babies are just a statistic...
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