Down Syndrome Solutions: Neanderthals or Nazis
I just came across a recent study that showed that Neanderthals cared for children with Down syndrome.
In Science Advances there is an article on The child who lived: Down syndrome among Neanderthals? The abstract reads:
Caregiving for disabled individuals among Neanderthals has been known for a long time, and there is a debate about the implications of this behavior. Some authors believe that caregiving took place between individuals able to reciprocate the favor, while others argue that caregiving was produced by a feeling of compassion related to other highly adaptive prosocial behaviors. The study of children with severe pathologies is particularly interesting, as children have a very limited possibility to reciprocate the assistance. We present the case of a Neanderthal child who suffered from a congenital pathology of the inner ear, probably debilitating, and associated with Down syndrome. This child would have required care for at least 6 years, likely necessitating other group members to assist the mother in childcare.
What you have to remember is that before 1900, the average life expectancy for a child with Down syndrome was 7 years old. So the fact that Neanderthals were keeping Down syndrome children alive for so long is quite amazing.
Such a feature can be put in juxtaposition to contemporary attitudes towards Down Syndrome which include the option or even the imperative to destroy them in-utero, to engage in infanticide shortly after birth if their condition was not detected, or else to offer/compel them to be euthanized if their lives become difficult or burdensome.
More terrifying, are the views of Australian “ethicist,” Singer, who has previously argued, that parents should be able to euthanize infants with conditionss like Down syndrome, spina bifida, hemophilia, and other disabilities that make “the child’s life prospects significantly less promising than those of a normal child.” He has claimed that it is perfectly permissible that the parents of children with these conditions should be allowed to end their child’s life rather than be forced to go through the burden and trauma of raising them into a life that offer little quality to them and their carers.
"You can try to kill off everyone with Down syndrome by using abortion, but you won’t be any closer to a perfect society. You will just be closer to a cruel, heartless one..."
-Charlotte Fien
I’d like to tell Singer some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that many European intellectuals and political leaders would wholeheartedly support their views on terminating the lives of people with disabilities either in utero or shortly after birth.
The bad news is that most of them were executed shortly after the Nuremberg trials.
Note this, Neanderthals looked after Down syndrome children, whereas the Nazis believed in killing them.
If you believe in abortion or infanticide for Down syndrome infants, your ethics are less than Neaderthals but very close to Nazis.
I have always remembered what one of my university professors said many years ago “one can judge a society by how it cares for those who have disabilities”
Thank you for this post. My older brother who has Intellectual disabilities came to live with us two years ago. He was born without his corpus collosum-that’s the middle part of your brain that divides the right and left so his brain doesn’t function like normal people. He also has epilepsy but that is under control. He is 65 but his mind is more like a middle schooler. I wrote about it recently on my Substack —Special needs children grow into special needs adults. It is difficult for family members to care for those with disabilities and especially the future responsibility after the parents have gone. BUT, there is joy and so much to learn about Gods grace and mercy even in the difficulties. WE are also part of a group of Downs adults that we play bingo with and I have come to learn so much about this sweet community of people. Once again. Yes, challenges are at times very difficult but there is also joy.