To many people, Down syndrome is a childhood disease. Tests like
amniocentesis allow would-be parents to identify the genetic
condition before birth. If they carry such a pregnancy to term
(90 percent don’t), the focus naturally turns to how they and
their child will cope with the challenges and difficulties of a
chromosomal disorder that causes lifelong physical abnormalities
and significant problems with learning, memory and speech. As
recently as the mid-20th century, Down syndrome essentially was
a child’s disease. The average life expectancy in 1929 was 9
years. Most individuals with Down syndrome, or DS, died in
infancy, often due to untreated congenital heart disease. DS
children were 10 to 15 times more likely to develop leukemia
than other children. Those who survived lived with health
problems that went undetected and, if detected, sometimes went
untreated or ignored. Even as late as 1980, the average life
expectancy for a person with DS was just 25 years, according to
the National Center on Birth D