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Gerber Contest Selects Baby with Down Syndrome as the Winner

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The first child with Down syndrome to be named a Gerber baby for the year appeared on NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday with a big smile.

One-year-old Lucas Warren from Dalton, Georgia was named the winner of Gerber’s 2018 Spokesbaby contest, becoming the first child with Down syndrome to win the title since it began in 2010. He was chosen from more than 140,000 entries

Warren’s parents, Cortney and Jason, said they entered their son on a whim and were stunned that he won. They added that they are very proud of Lucas and happy that his win may help others with disabilities be accepted by society.

“We’re hoping this will impact everyone, that it will shed a little bit of light on the special needs community and help more individuals with special needs be accepted and not limited,” Jason Warren said. “They have the potential to change the world, just like everybody else.” . . .

“Lucas’ winning smile and joyful expression won our hearts this year, and we are all thrilled to name him our 2018 Spokesbaby,” [Bill] Partyka said. “Every year, we choose the baby who best exemplifies Gerber’s longstanding heritage of recognizing that every baby is a Gerber baby, and this year, Lucas is the perfect fit.” (Read more from “Gerber Contest Selects Baby with Down Syndrome as the Winner” HERE)

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Eliminating Down Syndrome Children Is Not Something to Be Proud Of

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This week, the CBS News program “On Assignment” included a long feature on what it described as the near eradication of Down syndrome in Iceland.

As the story unfolded, viewers learned of the impact of genetic screening and abortion on a countrywide scale.

On that tiny island, known to people mostly for its geothermal pools and Northern Lights, what one scientist called “heavy-handed genetic counseling” has led to the death in utero of nearly every boy and girl affected by Down syndrome.

The CBS News report focused on a single nation, but the trend toward elimination of children with Down syndrome is tragically widespread.

New genetic screening tools available earlier in pregnancy have exacerbated this situation, leading to the lethal rejection of the majority, perhaps the vast majority, of these children worldwide.

In France, an estimated 96 percent of children with Down syndrome are killed before birth. In the United States, estimates range between 61 percent and 93 percent.

There is no haven for these children, no safe place that tells them they are no more imperfect, no less beautiful, than you or I am.

Just 27 years ago, a future U.S. surgeon general, testifying before Congress, looked forward to the day when Down syndrome could be eliminated in America.

She did not mean by ameliorating the disease itself. She meant by searching for and destroying children who have the condition, which she said would have “an important, and positive, public-health effect.”

This cold calculus is sadly common among professionals who live in the cost-benefit universe of “public health,” where individuals are sometimes denied their dignity based on their perceived value to society.

This is surely not a calculus that weighs in the minds of parents receiving news that the child God has sent them is not the healthy child every parent longs for.

But in denying some children dignity, many genetic counselors ironically undercut the dramatic medical progress being made to ensure that children with Down syndrome and other conditions live increasingly long and fruitful lives.

Research done by Dr. Brian Skotko, who co-leads the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, has shown that:

99 percent of people with Down syndrome are happy.
97 percent of people with Down syndrome like their identity.
99 percent of parents love their child with Down syndrome.
97 percent of brothers and sisters, ages 9-11, say they love their sibling.

Women must be allowed to know these facts.

Fortunately, 14 states as of July have passed “Down syndrome information acts” to provide expectant mothers with medically accurate information as well as guidance about community support services. More states should do so.

In addition, state legislatures are increasingly passing prohibitions on abortions performed for various discriminatory reasons, situations in which wanted unborn babies become unwanted because of some characteristic that, viewed in any postnatal context, would be protected under our civil rights laws—for example, sex and disability.

One can only deplore the actions recently taken in France to block internet sharing of beautiful videos like “Dear Future Mom,” which depicts a multilingual array of lovely human beings, who happen to have Down syndrome, urging future mothers to know these children will love them, live with unprecedented independence, hold jobs, have romances, blow them kisses, and embrace life.

What is happening in so many countries around the world today is a surrender to fear, a succumbing to the harsh judgments lodged against those who are different, a prejudice against the weaknesses and imperfections more visible in some but surely present in us all.

For these reasons, advocates, conscious that life is never easy, will continue to call for the dissemination of truthful and current information about the unique gifts people with Down syndrome offer this world, and for laws and policies that protect these precious souls from acts of lethal discrimination in the womb. (For more from the author of “Eliminating Down Syndrome Children Is Not Something to Be Proud Of” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

100% of Babies Diagnosed With Down Syndrome in This European Country Are Aborted. Think About That.

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In recent remarks to the Citizens Assembly in Ireland, Dr. Peter McParland, an ob-gyn at National Maternity Hospital, pointed to a sign of things to come.

“In Iceland,” the doctor said, “every single baby—100 percent of all those diagnosed with Down syndrome—are aborted” . . .

NBC News points to studies showing the following:

99% of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives.

97% of people with Down syndrome like who they are.

96% of people with Down syndrome like how they look.

(Read more from “100% of Babies Diagnosed With Down Syndrome in This European Country Are Aborted. Think About That.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Cashier Tells Mom of Toddler With Down Syndrome: ‘Bet You Wish You Knew Before He Came Out’

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A blogger named Sherry wrote on her blog about an incident with her two-year-old son Gabe (right), who has Down syndrome. Sherry wrote on her blog “Hand Me Downs” that she was tempted to punch the employee but she delivered a more appropriate response:

Sometimes I forget that our son has Down syndrome. It’s easy to be distracted by his two year old tantrums, his mischievous smile and go getter attitude. Gabe is kind hearted but stubborn.

Sometimes I forget, and that makes it even harder when someone reminds me in a not so kind way….

Like the cashier that gave me sad eyes and spit poison in a whisper,

“I bet you wish you had known before he came out. You know they have a test for that now…”

(Read more from “Cashier Tells Mom of Toddler With Down Syndrome: ‘Bet You Wish You Knew Before He Came Out'” HERE)

(Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Down Syndrome Screening Isn’t About Public Health, It’s About Eliminating a Group of People

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Upon delivering my first child 11 years ago, I heard the words “Down syndrome,” and my world collapsed. Visions of children sitting passively in a corner watching life go by, not participating, kept me awake those first nights as a mom.

It didn’t take me long, though, to figure out that my ideas were based on negative, outdated information that had nothing to do with the reality of life with Down syndrome today. My daughter April is an active, outgoing girl. She’s my nature child, wildly passionate about anything with four legs. Although April uses few words, she’s a master communicator. Through her, I’ve learned that Down syndrome is not the scary, terrible condition it’s made out to be.

But while governments (rightly) ban gender selection, selective abortion continues to be encouraged for children with Down syndrome. In the United States and abroad, screenings are a routine part of health-care programs, and the result is the near-elimination of these children.

When pregnant with my daughter Hazel, tests showed she, too, would be born with Down syndrome. I was shocked when an acquaintance asked me why I did not choose abortion — as if she were a mistake that could be easily erased. Although my personal prejudices have radically changed since the birth of my first daughter with Down syndrome, I realized that negative attitudes about the condition remain deeply rooted. To many, my children and their cohort are examples of avoidable human suffering, as well as a financial burden. Knowing that individuals look at my daughters this way hurts, but seeing governments and medical professionals worldwide reinforce these prejudices by promoting selection is horrendous.

Denmark was the first European country to introduce routine screening for Down syndrome in 2006 as a public health-care program. France, Switzerland and other European countries soon followed. The unspoken but obvious message is that Down syndrome is something so unworthy that we would not want to wish it for our children or society. With the level of screening among pregnant Danish women as high as 90 percent, the Copenhagen Post reported in 2011 that Denmark “could be a country without a single citizen with Down syndrome in the not too distant future.” (Read more from “Down Syndrome Screening Isn’t About Public Health, It’s About Eliminating a Group of People” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Family Starved 32-Year-Old Man With Down Syndrome to Death, He Weighed Just 69 Pounds

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

We’ve written three times about Robert Gensiak, who died an unspeakably brutal death, starved to the point where his bones showed through by his mother and sisters. His “crime”? To be defenseless. He had Down syndrome.

He weighed 69 pounds at his death; the local newspaper chose not to print photos “as a matter of taste.” Mr. Gensiak’s shriveled remains were cremated.

As the prosecutors made abundantly clear at trial, he was nothing more than a meal ticket to his sisters and mother.

They told the police the day after he died (in response to how his health had so badly deteriorated) they were “concern[ed] that if they placed Mr. Gensiak in a personal care facility, the financial support they received from his Social Security benefits would dry up.” According to Joseph Kohut of the Times-Tribune of Scranton, “Before the end of the interview, investigators said Mr. Gensiak’s mother asked if she would still receive her son’s Social Security check even though he died.”

In June 2013, Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola described Mr. Gensiak’s death as “the worst case of neglect I’ve seen the last 26 years. …This family, the mother and two sisters, basically let this young man rot to death.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mom Wishes She’d Killed Her Son With Down Syndrome…”I Wish it Every Day”

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Photo Credit: David CrumpThis Week’s Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us

Ah, the things you do for love. From buying expensive gifts, to changing our looks, to devoting every waking moment and thought to your loved one, you craft your world around your precious; you can’t help but plainly show who and what you love.

For example, love has made a woman in London publicly wish that she’d killed her son with Down Syndrome. Well, she’s calling it love.

Gillian Relf gave a disturbingly candid interview to the Daily Mail, and she says she wishes “every day” that she had aborted her son, Stephen.

As Life News reports:

Mrs. Relf, 69, regrets having her son, Stephen, who is 47, because he has Down syndrome and requires constant and daily care. She worries about what will happen to her son when she dies.

Relf starts with an embarrassing anecdote about how her son refused to sit in his seat on an airplane for a family trip to Greece.

The pilot had been very patient but, after an hour of the plane waiting on the Tarmac at Heathrow, with my son Stephen refusing to get up off the floor, sit in his seat and buckle up, our bags were removed from the hold and he was carried off the flight, my husband Roy and I walking, hot-cheeked and humiliated, behind.

Our family holiday to Greece would not be going ahead, after all.

That certainly sounds frustrating…and grounds for homicide, of course. The classic “anyone who spoils my vacation in Greece should be executed” defense.

Relf’s example is meant to typify the challenges she faces as she cares for her son’s special needs, a struggle that any parent could sympathize with. Most parents however, might wish for an end to the challenges, not the end of their child…which to Mrs. Relf seem one and the same.

“So difficult has it been that I can honestly say I wish he hadn’t been born.

I know this will shock many: this is my son, whom I’ve loved, nurtured and defended for nearly half a century, but if I could go back in time, I would abort him in an instant.”

Got to admit, not many moms “love,” “nurture,” and “protect” their child by wishing they’d killed him. Must be the newest evolution in the species.

After all, this life isn’t what Relf wanted. She dreamed of a perfect baby, perfect family, perfect life. And Stephen doesn’t fit what she wanted. So apparently, he’s got to go.

In her article, she blames doctors for not giving her an amniocentisis. You know, so she could have diagnosed her son’s Down Sydrome…and then executed him for it.

Stephen came into the world one Sunday in January 1967 at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital.The following Wednesday, I looked at him in his cot: his small, almond-shaped eyes, broad, flat nose and the one crease on the palms of his hands.

‘He’s a mongol, isn’t he?’ I gasped to my mother. It sounds shocking now but that was how we used to describe people with Down’s Syndrome in those days.

And lest you think this was just her initial emotional reaction, and that upon reflection, she might think her son’s life is actually more valuable than her preferences, Mrs. Relf reiterates again in the article, that she wishes she’d had killed Stephen.

Perhaps you’d expect me to say that, over time, I grew to accept my son’s disability. That now, looking back on that day 47 years later, none of us could imagine life without him, and that I’m grateful I was never given the option to abort.

However, you’d be wrong. Because, while I do love my son, and am fiercely protective of him, I know our lives would have been happier and far less complicated if he had never been born. I do wish I’d had an abortion. I wish it every day.

If he had not been born, I’d have probably gone on to have another baby, we would have had a normal family life and Andrew would have the comfort, rather than the responsibility, of a sibling, after we’re gone.

A normal life. Truly, the highest virtue to which one can aspire.

Honor, compassion, courage, self-sacrifice…they all pale in comparison to the nobility of “normalcy” (as defined by the latest of mirage of our mercurial hearts). Who are we to stand in the way of such a lofty goal? Who is her son?

In fact, why can she not take his life now? If one grants Mrs. Relf’s position as an ethical one, there’s no reason she should not kill her adult son today…in a 188th trimester abortion. It’s not like, after 47 years of joy, pain, growth, struggle, and humanity, that Stephen is really a person. Not really. He’s a burden. And his mom wants him gone. It’s all the same love.

And love makes us do crazy things.

Well, love…crippling narcissism…murderous egomania…they’re all basically the same.

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REBEKAH MAXWELL

Rebekah Maxwell grew up from stage to stage in a Midwestern gypsy band, singing and playing music with her family. She was homeschooled from backstage to the front pew, a system that suited her independent, slightly contrary, nature. She completed her high school work at age 16, and then promptly got a job as announcer at a local radio station, opting for a career that combined music, microphones and live performance with a steady paycheck. She began reporting and producing at WHO Radio in 2007, with on-air work recognized by the official alphabet soup: the AP, IBNA, NBNA, RTDNA, NAB (all the while staying far from the TSA and UFOs). While she attended Drake University to learn the ropes of legitimate broadcast journalism, she’s also been quoted as saying that her experience with the Deace Show has been at least as educational as college (and at a lower interest rate). She delights in debating religion, politics, and all other subjects impolite at the dinner table. Her favorite time of year is Caucus season, and she’s an accomplished slam poet, ready to spit the truth…in mad rhymes, if necessary.

Posted in-full with permission from the originating site. Read more from Steve Deace HERE.

Leona Lewis: Abortion of Down Syndrome Babies ‘Hurts My Heart’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Upon learning that 90% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted, singer/songwriter Leona Lewis said it was “incredibly sad” and “hurts my heart a bit.”

Lewis, a Brit who shot to fame and a successful musical career after winning the X Factor in 2006, made her remarks on Wednesday at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation Gala at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

At the event, CNSNews.com asked Lewis, “What do you think of the statistic that nine out of ten babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted?”

Lewis said, “I think that’s so sad. I think that’s incredibly, incredibly sad and, yeah, it hurts my heart a bit.”

The high rate of abortion after a diagnosis of Down Syndrome was reported in the New York Times as early as 2007 and has been confirmed by several different studies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hundreds Call to Adopt Down Syndrome Baby, Save it From Abortion

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Photo Credit: Carolyn KasterWhen the Rev. Thomas Vander Woude learned about a young couple planning to abort their unborn baby that had been diagnosed with Down syndrome, the priest reached out and offered a deal: Deliver the child and he would help find an appropriate adoptive family…

The woman, who has not been identified for her privacy and her protection, was just shy of six months pregnant and lives in a state that prohibits abortions past 24 weeks — which meant he had a short time to find a family willing to make a lifelong commitment.

So Father Vander Woude, the lead pastor at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, Va., approached a volunteer who helped manage the church’s social media pages, and she posted an urgent plea on Facebook early Monday morning.

“There is a couple in another state who have contacted an adoption agency looking for a family to adopt their Down Syndrome unborn baby. If a couple has not been found by today they plan to abort the baby. If you are interested in adopting this baby please contact Fr. VW IMMEDIATELY,” the post read. “We are asking all to pray for this baby and the wisdom that this couple realize the importance of human life and do not abort this beautiful gift from God”…

[A church staff member was astounded by the response, saying] the church received phone calls from all over the United States and around the world, including from England, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: American Airlines Kicked Family Off Cross-Country Flight Because Son Has Down Syndrome (+video)

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A California family says they were kicked off a cross-country American Airlines flight because their 16-year-old son has Down syndrome.

Joan and Robert Vanderhorst, of Bakersfield, Calif., said they intend to sue American over the “humiliating” incident at Newark Airport, in which they were told their special needs son posed a “flight risk.”

“It’s defamation,” Robert Vanderhorst told the Daily News. “It’s a violation of his civil rights and its defamation.”

Joan Vanderhorst pulled out her cell phone and started recording the incident on Sunday in which Bede is seen quietly playing with his hat and an American Airlines official warns that she was prohibited from filming “in a security-controlled area.”

At one point, Port Authority police were even called on the confused family. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the family’s video: