4 ms·
the older you are the higher the likelihood of birth defects or autism or Down's syndrome For what it's worth, we've been getting really good at identifying th
by gcp 10y ago
the older you are the higher the likelihood of birth defects or autism or Down's syndrome
For what it's worth, we've been getting really good at identifying these very early with tests that also hold little or no risk to the mother and baby (e.g. NIPT with free-cell fetal DNA). Of course, if there's moral objections to terminating such pregnancies even in the very early stages, that doesn't help.
reality of modern American society.
Yeah, that explains a lot. I understand daycare and healthcare aren't really subsidized here, apparently American society has problems with distributing the costs of childbearing over the population in order to encourage it. I guess they'll keep the population demographics at a sustainable level by immigration or something.
- Arizhel 10y agoI have to disagree about the testing bit with autism; from what I understand, that doesn't even show up until a kid is a couple years old or more. Anecdotally, I have two friends with kids, and both their kids are mildly autistic. I think, in both cases, the mothers were in their early 30s. >I guess they'll keep the population demographics at a sustainable level by immigration or something. Yep, that's exactly what they're doing. The people having all the kids are either immigrants (esp. Hispanic ones), or ultra-religious Christians. All the people supporting "liberal" values aren't having any kids because it's too much time and money. So I think we can look forward to something somewhat similar to what happened to the Islamic world: it used to be at the forefront of science and math, and then turned into what it is today when the clerics took over.
- gcp 10y agoOops, you're right. I was thinking of Down and related disorders, which highly correlate to autism. But the relation doesn't work the other way.