Fake News

Some news really is fake. Here's the headline from my CBS News front page: "The country where Down syndrome is disappearing". A reasonable person might infer from that sentence that some country (Iceland) has somehow found a "cure" for Down. Or at least has found a way to keep it from "spreading" into further generations. Like polio or smallpox. Ya think?

Well, no. Iceland just is more resolute in aborting tainted fetuses than most countries. There is no data that the incidence or prevalence of Down is diminishing in Iceland. There is, as yet, no evidence determining a cause. Down isn't inherited, as recessive characteristics are. It's not race based. It is idiopathic.

Down syndrome is caused by a random error in cell division that results in the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21.