Sadly, there will always be those who see people with Down syndrome as nothing more than a burden on society. Princeton University professor Robert George recently tweeted out a shocking video in which a bureaucrat from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment uses a blackboard to show a man with Down syndrome how “expensive” he is for society compared with “normal” people. “Do the Dutch, who suffered under — and in many cases heroically resisted — Hitler’s domination, forget that the ‘final solution’ began with the dehumanization and eugenic killing of the handicapped?” George asked.

Today, more and more people with Down syndrome are speaking out and demanding recognition of their humanity. Recently, Frank Stephens appeared before a House appropriations panel, where he told members of Congress, “I am a man with Down syndrome, and my life is worth living.” Noting the abortion rates for Down syndrome babies in Europe, he declared, “I completely understand that the people pushing this particular ‘final solution’ are saying that people like me should not exist,” but pleaded, “Let’s be America, not Iceland or Denmark. . . . Let’s pursue inclusion, not termination.”