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As soon as Norwegian couple Jan and Lene Robertsen learned their preborn daughter Olivia had Down syndrome, they were offered an abortion. According to Verdinytt, the Robertsens were happy to be expecting a baby and were having a routine check-up when an ultrasound detected a heart defect typically associated with Down syndrome. The couple chose to undergo an amniocentesis so they could get an official diagnosis and then prepare for their child’s needs at and after birth. Just a few days later, they received the diagnosis. “She has Down syndrome,” the doctor said, and then immediately added, “If you sign...

The time, travel, emotional turmoil and expense of entering into a surrogacy agreement with a woman in another country can only suggest that the baby born at the end of the process is a much-wanted child. However, that assumption has proved tragically false in shocking cases, where parents have abandoned the newborns they claimed to want when circumstances changed after the birth. They include the much-publicised case of Baby Gammy, who was carried, by a Thai surrogate mother for an Australian couple - who took his twin sister and left him behind after it was discovered he had Down's syndrome....

"One of the individuals - a little boy actually - ...had three copies of Chromosome 21. So, he would have had Down syndrome. And, yeah, that was unexpected and quite a moving little glimpse into the world of somebody with a disability in the very, very deep past," Cassidy said. The research team puts the discovery at between 4,000 and 6,000 years old, making it the oldest known case of Down's Syndrome in the world... "What we do, basically, is we powderise that [the petrous temporal bone in the inner ear] and we put the powder in solution and try...

With great effort and dedication, Ana Victoria becomes the fist woman with Down Syndrome to graduate Law from the Autonomous University of Zacatecus.

More than 146,000 years ago, Neanderthals hunted birds and other game during short stays at a Spanish cave called Cova Negra. Anthropologists studying the bones they left behind came across one that stood out: a part of the skull that contains the inner ear bones just a few centimeters long, from a child who lived to about age 6.The bone displays a handful of tiny anomalies most commonly found in people with Down syndrome today. The child likely had this condition and had hearing loss, scientists report today in Science Advances—the oldest known example of the condition. If confirmed, the...

A hospital accused of intentionally killing a teenage girl with Down syndrome has lost its last chance to dismiss, and the case will now move forward, in what her family says is a “first-of-its-kind” jury trial. Earlier this year, the tragic death of Grace Schara came to light. In 2021, Grace died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital; she had been given a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order without her or her family’s knowledge or consent; additionally, she was administered a cocktail of drugs — Precedex, Lorazepam, and Morphine — which are known to cause hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen in body tissues....

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was ongoing fear that those in the disability community would be discriminated against and have worse outcomes than their able-bodied peers. Tragically, these fears would turn out to be true, as people with disabilities were at least twice as likely to die. Now, a new study has revealed that patients with Down syndrome, specifically, were increasingly given do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders at much higher rates than the able-bodied population. In a press release, Stephanie Santoro, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, director of quality improvement research for the Down Syndrome Program...

Fear and pressure lead many parents to abort disabled children Kevin was 48 years old, married for more than 20 years, and the father of two teenage boys. His life would forever change when his wife informed him of an unexpected pregnancy. Kevin shares, “At first it was a shock, but soon I was bragging about becoming a new father at my advanced age.” At a prenatal appointment later in the pregnancy, the doctor noticed they had never taken the test for Down syndrome. After testing, their son was diagnosed with the chromosomal disorder. The doctor suggested abortion. Tragically, this...

When Kelly Shannon learned her preborn baby had Down syndrome, she was upset to discover she wouldn’t be able to have an abortion under Alabama law. So she traveled to Virginia to have the abortion, and believes that her decision was the correct one — so correct, in fact, that she says since she is “a married, white, straight, Christian, grew-up-in-the-church woman,” pro-lifers should listen to her and change their minds about abortion. Shannon spoke with the States Newsroom about learning at 16 weeks by ultrasound that her preborn baby girl had Down syndrome along with a buildup of fluid...

Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy says her youngest daughter who has Down Syndrome teaches her eight other kids patience. The 52-year-old appeared on Fox & Friends with four-year-old Valentina StellaMaris Duffy to raise awareness on National Down Syndrome day. 'So many of children with Downs are being exterminated in the womb and I think that when people get to meet them and see how wonderful they are we are going to see less of that,' Campos-Duffy told the show. Valentina was seen playing with Ainsley Earhardt and showing off the pilates skills she learnt in physical therapy. Campos-Duffy shares eight...

In a matter of minutes, Shane Gillis deftly put to bed one of the most nefarious lies of the pro-abortion left: that killing preborn babies with Down syndrome is the merciful thing to do.Shane Gillis, the stand-up comedian who’s partly famous for being fired as a cast member from “Saturday Night Live” before he even debuted, was somehow invited back to host the show over the weekend. Of course, that honor allowed him to deliver the iconic monologue. For Gillis — surrounded by the unfunny scolds who fired him in 2019 in part for making the type of joke that’s...

Given that Shane Gillis was famously fired from “Saturday Night Live” for using a racial slur, one might imagine he’d tread a little carefully during his stunning return to the show. Apparently not, we hear. Sources tells Page Six that Gillis plans to use the Down syndrome jokes that have long been a part of his act. Gillis has relatives with the condition and has worked with kids who live with it, and the bits he does in his stand-up act come off as unconventionally affectionate and even celebratory of people with Downs. But it remains to be seen whether...

A lawyer changes her mind. Janine Steck Huffman has a child with Down’s syndrome. But years before she gave birth to her son Nash, she was partly responsible for the legal starvation death of Baby Doe, another child born with the same condition. Baby Doe was born in Bloomington, Indiana, in April 1982. Besides Down syndrome, he had esophageal atresia, which prevented him from eating. Without a simple operation, he would starve to death. When Baby Doe’s mother saw him for the first time, she reportedly said, “You look beautiful. You look different from my other two, but I love...

Disclaimer: "Who Should Survive" was produced in 1971. The language used in this film to refer to and describe Baby Doe was acceptable 40 to 50 years ago. We recognize that is no longer the case and that such language is now disrespectful and offensive.We urge the use of "people first" language and more respectful words to describe people with disabilities in all instances, in both spoken and written language. This film, however, is historical, and the language and terminology used throughout the film has been left intact to retain the historical context in which it was produced. Eunice Kennedy...

Worldwide, most babies known to have Down syndrome are aborted. US statistics vary, but one study put the overall number at 67%. People Who Want to Abort Babies with Down Syndrome Give Their Reasons Rayna Rapp, who aborted a baby with Down syndrome herself, interviewed parents who were waiting for the results of Down syndrome screenings. These parents all intended to abort their babies if they tested positive. Here are some of their comments: · I would have a very hard time dealing with a retarded child… I would feel grief, not having what I consider a normal family.1 ·...

A heartbreaking story highlighted by ABC News attempts to justify the abortion of a baby girl from Alabama just because she had Down syndrome. The baby girl’s mother, Kelly Shannon, traveled to Richmond, Virginia for the abortion because the laws in her home state protected her unborn daughter, according to the report. “This has been the single most painful and traumatic experience of my life and our lives,” Shannon told the news outlet. “And anybody who wants to stand up and say that abortions are wrong or that people shouldn’t be able to make their own decisions about abortion care...

Days after Mattel announced their first ever Barbie with Down syndrome, a self-described pro-life conservative political commentator released a video on Twitter mocking the doll. Social media users quickly reacted with outrage. In the video posted to Twitter, Steven Crowder and his co-hosts can be heard snickering and laughing over an Inside Edition feature promoting the doll. “With r*tard strength!” they can be heard saying over the promo, adding, “Is this real? This is real.” They continued to laugh as model Ellie Goldstein, who has Down syndrome, appeared holding one of the Down syndrome Barbies. “Well, here’s the thing, they...

— A Wisconsin couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Catholic hospital which gave a dangerous combination of drugs to their daughter and then refused to resuscitate her shortly before her death. Grace Schara, a 19-year old with Down syndrome, died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (Ascension Health) in October 2021 after being administered a sedative, an anxiety medication, and morphine, which are known to hasten severe hypoxia when taken together, according to the lawsuit. Grace was already sedated on maximum doses of Precedex the morning before her death when she was given Lorazepam, which “can increase the risk of serious...

This is the moment a cold-hearted carer struck a vulnerable patient in the face hours before the man died from a cardiac arrest. Dami Tobi Ayan 'man-handled' Ben King by pushing him to the ground and dragging him by the arms before slapping him with an open hand. Cowardly Ayan, 62, was then caught on camera looking around and checking no one was there before hitting his victim again with the back of his hand. His frustration was directed towards a defenceless patient who had Down's Syndrome and severe learning difficulties. Mr King, 32, who was naked at the time,...

Scientists have identified which parts of the immune system go awry and contribute to autoimmune diseases in individuals with Down syndrome. The work adds to the research team's findings, showing that people with Down syndrome have less frequent but more severe viral infections. Studying lab specimens from volunteers with Down syndrome, the investigators identified cytokines and a B cell subtype—key players in the adaptive immune response—as the potential culprits for most autoimmunity in people with the disorder. Strikingly, the researchers found that many people with Down syndrome are in a perpetual state of inflammation comparable to those without Down syndrome...