When Will We Stop Killing Humans with Down Syndrome?

I really hate this "debate." In fact, I can't even believe it's a thing.

Here's Ruth Marcus, at WaPo, via Memeorandum, "I would've aborted a fetus with Down syndome. Women need that right."

But see Marc Thiessen, at Fox News, "Babies with Down syndrome have a right to life":

WASHINGTON -- When Karen Gaffney's mother found out she would be born with Down syndrome, the doctor said Karen probably would not be able to tie her own shoes. Instead, as Karen explained in a moving and eloquent TEDx talk, she has become an accomplished open-water swimmer who has crossed the English Channel in a relay race and completed the swimming leg of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.

Now she fears the result of a new race -- the one to "find newer, faster ways" to screen for Down syndrome so that more children with the disability can be killed in the womb.

Her fears are well-founded. CBS News recently reported that Iceland was on the verge of "eliminating" Down syndrome. Unfortunately, there was no great medical breakthrough to report. Iceland, it turns out, is not eliminating Down syndrome; it is eliminating people with Down syndrome. The country's abortion rate for Down syndrome babies is close to 100 percent -- the highest in the world. Denmark is close behind at 98 percent. In the United States, it is 67 percent -- and Karen fears the rates here will soon reach European levels.

"Save our lives!" she pleads.

Sadly, there will always be those who see people with Down syndrome as nothing more than a burden on society. Princeton University professor Robert George recently tweeted out a shocking video in which a bureaucrat from Dutch National Institute for Public Health shows a man with Down syndrome on a blackboard how "expensive" he is for society compared to "normal" people. "Do the Dutch, who suffered under -- and in many cases heroically resisted -- Hitler's domination, forget that the 'final solution' began with the dehumanization and eugenic killing of the handicapped?" George asked.

Today, more and more people with Down syndrome are speaking out and demanding recognition of their humanity...

Keep reading.