(Update: 11/16/2018 This piece has been edited from it's original version at the request of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society. The earlier version identified the organization as a Catholic organization in error. This version also clarifies that the organization's effort is focused on increasing research and support for those with Down syndrome.)
An agency supporting persons with Down syndrome is filing a petition asking for human beings with the chromosomal condition to be placed on the global endangered species list to increase research and support.
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society is requesting that Down syndrome persons be placed on a global protection list, just like nearly-extinct tigers, rhinos and pandas.
“That is precisely why the Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) is attempting to draw attention to the plight of people with Down syndrome via a daring new campaign, “Endangered syndrome,” LifeSite news reported. “They have launched a petition calling for those with Down syndrome to be placed on the ‘endangered’ list, noting that that by the standards of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Down syndrome community qualifies.
CDSS noted that animal welfare organizations get a whopping 90 percent more funding than Down syndrome charities across North America.
“We’re not saying that we are a community of animals at all,” CDSS spokesperson Ben Tarr told CTV. “We’re just trying to put a comparison in the world that says when someone gets put on the endangered species list, they’re given all the support to help that species thrive. And that’s what we want for our kids, for our community, is the ability to thrive. It’s a campaign that’s set around raising awareness; this is a community that doesn’t get a huge amount of attention.”
In many developed nations, the vast majority of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero are aborted, despite them being perfectly compatible with life outside the womb.
In the United States, anywhere between 67 and 90 percent of all babies diagnosed with Down's before birth are terminated before they ever draw their first breath. In the U.K., it’s 90 percent; in France, it’s 77 percent. In Iceland, nearly 100 percent of all children with the anomaly are aborted, even as the country’s pro-abortion activists praise the “eradication” of the condition through the systematic genocide of those who have it.
These rates of early termination are expected by some to rise, even as the life expectancy of people with Down syndrome has risen well into the 60s and 70s.