Disturbing Trend Toward Hitlerism

I read an article about a researcher who has dedicated his life to finding a way to help people with Down syndrome. After his daughter was born and diagnosed with DS, he changed his research emphasis from the brain to specifically studying DS. 

In this article, he pointed out that another group is working just as hard as he is. This group is dedicated to preventing DS. At first, I thought it meant they would be able to manipulate the genetic material to undo DS, but in further study, this group is actually working to make more testing available so people can abort pregnancies earlier. This group is advocating killing babies that are "imperfect" and have an extra chromosome.

As I've thought about this, my mind goes back to what I learned about Adolf Hitler. He wanted to create a "super race." He decided that only certain people should live and as a result millions of people were butchered. He was a madman out of control in his pursuit of perfection. And he talked thousands into following him.

Everyone is appalled at what he did to the Jews and those he determined were not suitable to live anymore. He gassed them, experimented on them, shot them, and treated them inhumanely as if they were no better than the dirt under his shoe. He did his best to eradicate the world of "imperfect" human beings and thousands enabled him to do so. A few very brave people stood up to his tyranny and protected those he targeted. To this day, we teach our children what a monster Hitler was for murdering so many people simply because he thought they didn't deserve to live.

And yet, our society embraces the idea of aborting babies who are "imperfect." We fund research and encourage people to develop better testing so we can eradicate those who are not perfect. Our society acts as though it's noble to rid a couple of an "imperfect" child by allowing them the right to abort that baby.

How is that any different that what Hitler did? How are we any better than the man responsible for so many deaths? Apparently, we haven't come very far from Hitler's idea of perfection and the pursuit of that perfection to the point of terminating those who do not meet the definition.

We may see ourselves as an advanced society but how advanced can we be when we encourage selective births by terminating those we think are imperfect?

Requiring Verbalization

We've been busy painting and rearranging bedrooms so I haven't had much time to blog.

But, this summer has been great for my son because he's had so much interaction with his siblings. One of his sisters is especially good with working with him. She spends a lot of time playing with him and urging him to use words. He loves to be with her and usually chooses to sit with her or play with her because she's spent so much time with him. I've loved watching their relationship develop over the summer.

We've all made a goal to make him use words instead of signs. Today, he wanted some of his brother's pancake so he made a cutting motion with his hand to indicate his desire. Of course, we all knew what he wanted. We almost always know what he wants, but when we allow him to use signs we aren't helping him to develop his verbal skills.

He asked me for a drink this morning by signing it. I made him say "drink" before I gave it to him. He always signs "thank you" but now we're making him actually say the words. I think if we are more diligent in making him use words instead of signs he'll advance in his verbal skills better.

That's easier said than done, but I need to be more committed in requiring him to be verbal. I think he can be much more verbal than he is but signing is easier so he relies on that. I hoping to pull more verbalization out of him in the next few months.