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Incredible. How can they spin prenatal screening for Down syndrome as a bad thing? It's a severe disorder with literally no benefits and we're absolutely better

Incredible. How can they spin prenatal screening for Down syndrome as a bad thing? It's a severe disorder with literally no benefits and we're absolutely better off taking steps to eliminate it.

nsxwolf 9y ago
It's being reported as though a cure for Down Syndrome has been found, however the step taken to "eliminate" it is abortion. That may be of no consequence to the world view of the average SV engineer, but that explains how it is being "spun" as a bad thing by many.
- tree_of_item 9y ago
  Yes, I read the article. I also don't live in Silicon Valley. I don't think it's "being reported as though a cure for Down syndrome has been found". That's the spin the National Review article puts on it. Here are the first two paragraphs of the quoted CBS article: > 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. It's pretty clear that they're not talking about a cure. How is this a bad thing at all? How is this "eugenics"? Down syndrome is a serious, debilitating genetic disorder with no benefits in any sense. Why do we want it to exist? I'm not really seeing an argument against this besides the usual pro-life positions.
  - wbl 9y ago
    People with Down syndrome have high life satisfaction.
    - thriftwy 9y ago
      That's the problem with humans where life satisfaction seems to be inversely correlated with IQ.
      - gwern 9y ago
        I believe it tends to either be constant or slightly positive, actually. Of course, if all you want is happy people, happiness is heritable and so you can do embryo selection on it or genetically correlated traits like personality factors (for Extraversion & against Neuroticism: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/personality-polygenes-positive-affect-and-life-satisfaction/4DB2BE673BF122FB9A0AF2147EED80C0/core-reader https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-hu... )
        pas 9y ago
        Could you elaborate on the iq happiness correlation? Possible mechanisms, data, ways to test it, etc?
  - nsxwolf 9y ago
    What other argument against it would their be besides the usual pro-life ones? I don't know who would be against some kind of treatment to disable or delete the extra chromosome.
- thriftwy 9y ago
  They have the choice of trying to pay potential Down syndrome sufferers' mothers and then adopting their children. I guess with a few billion dollars you could drop the abortion rate of Down syndrome embryos in Iceland in sub-50% area. They could solve the problem with money. They don't, instead they're trying to solve it with spin. Which will also won't work but at least some journalists get to feel self-righteous.

Incredible. How can they spin prenatal screening for Down syndrome as a bad thing? It's a severe disorder with literally no benefits and we're absolutely better off taking steps to eliminate it.

nsxwolf 9y ago

It's being reported as though a cure for Down Syndrome has been found, however the step taken to "eliminate" it is abortion. That may be of no consequence to the world view of the average SV engineer, but that explains how it is being "spun" as a bad thing by many.

tree_of_item 9y ago
Yes, I read the article. I also don't live in Silicon Valley. I don't think it's "being reported as though a cure for Down syndrome has been found". That's the spin the National Review article puts on it. Here are the first two paragraphs of the quoted CBS article: > 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. It's pretty clear that they're not talking about a cure. How is this a bad thing at all? How is this "eugenics"? Down syndrome is a serious, debilitating genetic disorder with no benefits in any sense. Why do we want it to exist? I'm not really seeing an argument against this besides the usual pro-life positions.
- wbl 9y ago
  People with Down syndrome have high life satisfaction.
  - thriftwy 9y ago
    That's the problem with humans where life satisfaction seems to be inversely correlated with IQ.
    - gwern 9y ago
      I believe it tends to either be constant or slightly positive, actually. Of course, if all you want is happy people, happiness is heritable and so you can do embryo selection on it or genetically correlated traits like personality factors (for Extraversion & against Neuroticism: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-human-genetics/article/personality-polygenes-positive-affect-and-life-satisfaction/4DB2BE673BF122FB9A0AF2147EED80C0/core-reader https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twin-research-and-hu... )
      - pas 9y ago
        Could you elaborate on the iq happiness correlation? Possible mechanisms, data, ways to test it, etc?
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  What other argument against it would their be besides the usual pro-life ones? I don't know who would be against some kind of treatment to disable or delete the extra chromosome.
thriftwy 9y ago
They have the choice of trying to pay potential Down syndrome sufferers' mothers and then adopting their children. I guess with a few billion dollars you could drop the abortion rate of Down syndrome embryos in Iceland in sub-50% area. They could solve the problem with money. They don't, instead they're trying to solve it with spin. Which will also won't work but at least some journalists get to feel self-righteous.