A while back, I weighed in on a topic that can get quite heated – Down Syndrome and the potential prevention of children with it being born. Although I was more focused on a) why people should not be publicly shamed for writing about controversial topics and b) why certain people might become such a fierce defender of letting children with DS be born rather than aborted, I nonetheless received quite a bit of negative feedback on the post from people with children who have DS.
As such, my brain was piqued by the following headline:
Shutting Down the Extra Chromosome in Down’s Syndrome Cells (via NatGeo)
The research is many years away from any human applications, and instead focuses on inactivating the extra chromosome present in lab grown cells. Nonetheless, the work represents a huge step forward and overcame tremendous technical problems to actually do the work.
So, I pose this question: if a treatment was available that could reverse or improve the physical and mental problems caused by Down’s Syndrome, would you use it on your child?
