Charities in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana say giving people money is faster and gives them back agency. But experts say cash alone can’t solve all the problems after a storm.
A recently released study finds that Europe has reduced the number of babies born with Down syndrome by 54 percent. In 2016, the same researchers found that the US rate of Down syndrome births had declined by 33 percent. Some friends and colleagues have asked me whether such reductions, which entail prenatal diagnosis and elective pregnancy termination, mean that we are still practicing some form of eugenics.
Down syndrome is a genetic disorder usually associated with an extra copy of chromosome 21 – hence its other name, trisomy-21. Children with Down syndrome generally exhibit growth delays, reduced intelligence, and a shortened life span of around 60 years. The risk of having a baby with Down syndrome increases with parental age. When prenatal testing reveals the diagnosis, some parents, including apparently many in Europe and the US, elect to terminate the pregnancy.