Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday August 17 2017, @11:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-Am-Sam dept.

Iceland is close to eliminating Down syndrome births due to widespread prenatal screening tests and nearly 100% of women choosing an abortion in the case of a positive test for Down syndrome:

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.

[...] 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 [open, DOI: 10.1002/pd.2910] [DX] 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.

The Prenatal Diagnosis link in the summary was replaced with a working version.

National Review has a counterpoint opinion piece about the CBSN article. Snopes has a page debunking inaccurate headlines about the article.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday August 17 2017, @01:06PM (11 children)

    by shrewdsheep (5215) on Thursday August 17 2017, @01:06PM (#555271)

    What can be said about Down patients is that they are happy persons (well, almost all of them). That cannot be said about the rest of the population. OTOH there is also the burden they impose on their family/wardens so I am feeling a lot of ambiguity there and we have to leave the decision to abort or not to abort the individual IMO.

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:10PM (9 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:10PM (#555351)

    OTOH there is also the burden they impose on their family/wardens

    And this part is never discussed by the anti-abortion folks. It's one thing to volunteer to raise a perfectly healthy baby to adulthood (and how much of the anti-abortion crowd volunteers for this, especially for black babies?), but it's another thing to volunteer to take care of someone for their entire life, since people with Down's frequently cannot live independently. Are any of the anti-abortion people volunteering for this job?

    • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:30PM (7 children)

      by shrewdsheep (5215) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:30PM (#555364)

      I agree with you that this is exactly the challenge. In the past I have worked in genetic counseling and it is heartbreaking to see what a kid with a syndrome (or occasionally an adult, e.g. Huntingtons) can do to a family. Most families break apart, few can stand it, it is always a lifelong challenge.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:44PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:44PM (#555411)

        God will provide, but those with moral authority generally will not.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:33PM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @10:33PM (#555599)

          Deities are fiction.
          ...and not particularly good fiction.
          If you analyze the scripture of various religions, you will find numerous contradictory items within their own book.

          Unlike Science, which tends to converge on the mechanisms of how stuff works, religions just get wackier and wackier and in greater disagreement as you examine the various sects.

          If there was any truth to religion, there would be great agreement on the fundamental facts.
          Instead, religion is a bunch of yahoos trying to grab power, each inventing his own magical nonsense.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:53PM (3 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:53PM (#556140)

            I am more appalled at your vision of Science as a steadily progressing discoverer of truth than about your opinion on religions. When you get older and Science will have twice told you that the food you have considered unhealthy is healthy and vice versa, maybe you will change idea.

            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday August 18 2017, @11:11PM (2 children)

              by Immerman (3985) on Friday August 18 2017, @11:11PM (#556167)

              That's not science, it's politics. Corrupted politics at that, as pretty much any major announcement (that people take seriously) comes from a federal health board, which is probably light on actual doctors, much less scientists, and extremely heavy on politicians who are more interested in ensuring their sponsors keep funding them than in spreading useful information. Take the traditional Food Pyramid as an example - total bunk from a scientific perspective, and everyone involved in making it knew that when it was released.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @07:07PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @07:07PM (#556445)

                Yup. Excellent example.
                Clearly based on which agricultural products got the most subsidies.
                (Grains, to include animal fodder.)

                It's pretty clear that for hundreds of thousands of years our opportunistic species consumed mainly what they could easily grab and eat (fruits and veggies).

                .
                In the last month, I've heard that fossil-fuel-based utilities knew that what they were doing was wrecking the ecosystem, same as Big Oil knew. [google.com]
                Since USA.gov funds a huge portion of most research, it's unlikely gov't insiders weren't aware as well.
                ...but there's The Revolving Door for them to consider.

                Yeah, in so many cases, it's politics, with folks feathering their own nests and taking bribes from megacorporations to deliver the prescribed results--not the search for truth.

                ...then we have O'Bummer and the rest of them persecuting whistleblowers--while claiming to be all about transparency in gov't.

                -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

                • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday August 23 2017, @12:41PM

                  by Bot (3902) on Wednesday August 23 2017, @12:41PM (#557952) Journal

                  so you are ready to look at science with a critical eye because no matter the corruptions it is useful in its own domain, and you are not ready to do the same with religion. Interesting meatbags.

                  --
                  Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday August 18 2017, @04:00AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Friday August 18 2017, @04:00AM (#555698) Homepage

        I know someone who aborted a severely-defective but viable fetus (IIRC it basically had no forebrain) for precisely this reason. As she put it, "That burden is not fair to my other kids." Meaning if you have to spend all your time on one child, what becomes of the rest of your family?

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:48PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:48PM (#555416)

      Especially since the anti-abortion crowd always tells people that adoption is a great solution ... but there an infinitesimal fraction of people willing to adopt Down Syndrome kids.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Entropy on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:45PM

    by Entropy (4228) on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:45PM (#555413)

    They are happy, and cute kids. When they are adults they have a significantly higher suicide rate, so no--they are only happy when they are cute to look at and an adult is in charge of their welfare. When it comes time to look for a mate and forge your own path in life they discover that unfortunately, they are quite literally retarded.