People with Down syndrome—and their families—are overwhelmingly
happy with their lives, as recent studies published in the
American Journal of Medical Genetics show. And yet, advocates
for Down syndrome (including self-advocates) have been working
overtime to get the message out about what it actually means to
live with the diagnosis, for good reason: they’ve found
themselves in the unusual position of having to defend and
explain why people with Down syndrome deserve to live as much as
anyone else. People with Down syndrome have their own gifts,
talents, hopes and dreams, just like the rest of us. They can
and do make significant contributions to their families, their
communities and to the world at large. They have value and worth
(and self-worth). There is a chorus of voices, of parents and
siblings of people with Down syndrome, and of people with Down
syndrome themselves, expressing a loud and powerful message: A
life with Down syndrome is a life worth living. The emergence of
new prenatal tests to detect