Free Republic

When anything sacred must be debauched, there are no limits to the charade of liberating oneself from taboos. In 2019, a performance by a dance troupe at the Tanglefoot Building in Grand Rapids attracted controversy after the site’s owner canceled the event. The reason was that the troupe was composed of drag queens and kings, and all were adults with Down Syndrome. The event space owner was Peter Meijer, then a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives. After brief outrage, the story was forgotten, but Drag Syndrome has continued to market their “craft” through—what else?—TikTok. When I learned there...

A new study shows that a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease may also improve cognitive function in people with Down syndrome. The drug sargramostim (GM-CSF, which stands for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) is the first to show memory improvement in Alzheimer's patients in a phase II clinical trial. GM-CSF is a normal human protein that is safe and well-tolerated with over 30 years of FDA-approved use for other disorders. A multidisciplinary team studied the safety and tolerability of GM-CSF treatment and its effects on behavior and brain pathology in a mouse model of Down syndrome and in mice undergoing typical aging....

Jérôme Jean Louis Marie Lejeune (1926 – 1994)Bioethics is one of the few academic disciplines and professions that does not have a patron saint. We at The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) think this may change soon. Jérôme Lejeune, a French medical doctor and world class geneticist, was recently declared venerable — the first step on the road to canonization, by the Church. He led a remarkable life that began with scientific break-through discoveries and continued with decades of faithful work defending the right to life of human embryos and preborn children.It is remarkable to me that the Vatican declaration...

A British woman with Down Syndrome was refused life-saving emergency medical treatment by the NHS due to her disability, a report has claimed. Britain’s socialised National Health Service refused to provide treatment to Susan Sullivan, 56, who had Down syndrome, citing her disability as grounds to deny her the medical treatment she needed, which resulted in her subsequent death, it is claimed in a Sky News report.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The father of a special needs child with Down syndrome is speaking out, still fuming that his 7-year-old daughter came home from Ocean Breeze Elementary School with a mask tied around her head. "I was so angry so I waited four days from Thursday 7th to Tuesday after Columbus Day because I really need to calm down," said Jeff Steel. "When this child got off the bus and had the mask it was tied around the back of her head underneath her ponytail and it was quite tight around her face." He said it was so tight,...

Zoey-Lea O’Hehir and her husband Jake are speaking out about the cruel way they found out their daughter Arlee has Down syndrome. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, O’Hehir said she was in the middle of teaching when she received the phone call delivering the diagnosis. She was told that her daughter had Down syndrome and that the doctor had already scheduled an abortion. “It was very scary and just the mention of termination struck a nerve,” she said. “Before I could say anything, before I could process anything or even breathe [he’d scheduled the termination].” After trying...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday signed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that bans the procedure if the woman is seeking it solely because a fetus has a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome. Doctors who perform an abortion solely because the child has a survivable genetic issue can face felony charges. The proposal also contains a raft of other provisions sought by abortion opponents. The measure passed the Republican-controlled Legislature on party-line votes over unanimous opposition from minority Democrats. The Republican governor is an abortion opponent who has never vetoed a piece of anti-abortion legislation. …

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed four pro-life bills into law last week, including a bill that makes abortions performed in the state because of a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis a felony. Known as House Bill 1110, the measure was signed into law last Friday and bans abortions for the sake of terminating a Down syndrome baby, with an exemption given for life-threatening medical emergency for the mother. “No person may perform or attempt to perform an abortion with knowledge that the pregnant woman is seeking the abortion because the unborn child either has been diagnosed with Down syndrome or...

A new study led by Belgian and Spanish researchers published in Scientific Reports adds evidence about the potential benefits of green tea extracts in Down syndrome. The researchers observed that the intake of green tea extracts can reduce facial dysmorphology in children with Down syndrome when taken during the first three years of life. Additional experimental research in mice confirmed the positive effects at low doses. However, they also found that high doses of the extract can disrupt facial and bone development. More research is needed to fully understand the effects of green tea extracts and therefore they should always...

One girl from Spain is proving that anyone can make their dreams come true, even people like her who were born with Down syndrome. Marian Avila has made a successful career as a model, despite how difficult it can be for people with Down syndrome to find a job. She is leveraging the media attention she’s received to bring awareness to the chromosomal disorder and encourage people to pursue their dreams no matter what. As a child, Marian always dreamed of becoming a model. Not only was she born with Down syndrome, she is only 5-foot-3. Her height alone would...

In her address, Noem told lawmakers she would submit legislation to prohibit abortions in South Dakota based on a Down Syndrome diagnosis.In her address, Noem told lawmakers she would submit legislation to prohibit abortions in South Dakota based on a Down Syndrome diagnosis. South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem proposed a bill Tuesday to her state legislature during the state of the state address that would stop children with Down Syndrome from being targeted and exterminated. In her address, Noem told lawmakers she would submit legislation to prohibit abortions in South Dakota based on a Down Syndrome diagnosis. Across the...

Recently, The Atlantic published an article, “The Last Children of Down Syndrome,” by Sarah Zhang, in which she explores the effects of prenatal testing in Demark. Denmark is among many Nordic countries that provide taxpayer-paid prenatal testing for Down Syndrome and other genetic anomalies. In Denmark, more than 95 percent of those who receive a DS diagnosis choose to abort their child. In 2019, only 18 children with Down Syndrome were born in the entire country.While Zhang claims to present readers what she calls an “emotional ground truth” by giving pros and cons to the DS abortion debate and “humanizing”...

On Friday, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling allowing a portion of Tennessee’s 2020 pro-life legislation, signed into law by Governor Bill Lee, to take effect. The Court ruled on parts of the legislation that are collectively referred to as the “reason bans” because they prohibit abortions for certain reasons. Those reasons include aborting due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome, or because the preborn child is not the gender or race that the mother or both parents wanted. The abortion providers’ lawsuit requested an injunction preventing the enforcement of the reason bans while...

A federal appeals court gave the state of Tennessee great news late Friday when it issued a ruling that the Volunteer State can ban abortions done specifically because a baby has Down syndrome. Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a broad pro-life law to protect unborn babies from abortions once their heartbeats are detectable. Though the legislation is described as a heartbeat bill, it includes many different measures to protect unborn babies. The law passed the state legislature in June, and pro-life lawmakers said they wrote the bill to withstand a legal challenge. The heartbeat portion of the...

Discrimination against unborn babies with disabilities is a huge problem in our supposedly modern, progressive culture. Countless times, LifeNews.com and other pro-life sources have encountered stories of mothers being pressured to abort unborn babies after a diagnosis of Down syndrome, spina bifida, microcephaly or even cleft lip.A new study highlighted in Scientific American found more evidence of this discrimination while conducting research about medical diagnosis trauma.Authors Cindi May, a professor of psychology at the College of Charleston, and Jaclyn Hennessey Ford, a research assistant professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College, surveyed more than 300 mothers...

(Right to Life UK) – A Chinese biotech firm has declared “screening out” babies with Down syndrome is a “cash cow” funding the growth of the whole business. The admission comes from a spokesperson for BGI Group – a Chinese genetics conglomerate whose main business is offering non-invasive prenatal tests, primarily used to diagnose Down syndrome. In a segment from an Aljazeera documentary titled Genesis 2.0, the spokesperson gestures towards a digital map of the world and says: “You can see clearly, especially for Down’s syndrome, we have nearly two million samples all over the world. This part is, what...

A Scottish mother, who has a six-year old son with Down’s syndrome, has slammed Amazon for selling t-shirts which read, ‘let’s make down syndrome extinct.’ She said: “To target a group who are disabled is just disgusting.” Stacey Corrigan, aged 34 from Paisley has a six year old son with Down’s syndrome named Daniel. Ms Corrigan slammed the t-shirt slogan as “hateful” and “disgusting”, asserting that it should be treated as a crime. She said: “I can’t believe they have been allowed to sell this. Who even thinks up an idea to design this? Daniel is just perfect to us...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal court in Cincinnati will hear complex legal arguments for and against Ohio's Down syndrome abortion ban Wednesday, in a case viewed as pivotal in the national debate over the procedure. Attorneys for the government contend in legal filings that the sidelined 2017 law does not infringe on a woman's constitutional rights — because it “does not prohibit any abortions at all.” That was certainly not how the measure's proponents in the Ohio Legislature saw it, said one backer. “I'm of the mind that it certainly does prevent abortions,” said state Rep. Candice Keller, a Republican...

The number of late term abortions carried out past 24 week’s gestation on UK children with Down’s syndrome have doubled in the past 10 years, recent figures have revealed. Michael Robinson, SPUC Director of Communications said: “It is barbaric that a child who may have a disability in the UK can be aborted right up to birth. This practice has no place in a civilised society.” The recent figures, obtained in response to a parliamentary question by Lord Alton, have revealed that in 2018, the number of UK children aborted past 24 weeks gestation following a possible Down’s syndrome diagnosis...

The mother of a New Jersey student with Down syndrome who was forced to leave the senior prom early has filed suit against the school district, claiming her daughter was the victim of discrimination due to her disability. The suit was filed by Katherine Trusky in Somerset County Superior Court on Dec. 9 and argues that Hillsborough High School student, identified as L.D., was “humiliated, singled out, and forced to leave the Senior Prom early while other, “neurotypical,” students were allowed to continue.” The lawsuit goes on to say that the memorable night that L.D. and her friends were meant...