Down syndrome

The spotlight on Trig Palin at the GOP convention, writes Michael Gerson, comes at a time when we need to have a civil-rights debate about those who are born "less than perfect." Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by prenatal testing each year, about 90 percent are eliminated by abortion. And the American College of Obstetricians recently recommended universal early testing for Down syndrome, not just for older women. Some say increased screenings will reduce the number of Down syndrome births to fewer than 1,000 a year, compared to the 5,500 a year we now have: