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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   18238 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026

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This seems to assume that having a Down syndrome child precludes having another child afterward, which strikes me as odd.

It obviously does, on the margin, since the options are:

  • First trimester abortion, try again after
  • Carry the baby to term, then recover from pregnancy and birth (and dealing with a young child with disabilities), then try again

Humans have a limited fertility window and most people are trying to hit some target number of kids. However, even if you are just trying to maximize the number of kids you have until you hit menopause, you're trading off a neurotypical kid for a down syndrome kid. Exception would be situations like "you're over 40 and you probably can't get pregnant again".

Not only have we shifted the goal posts to what I agree is a highly non-central situation at best, but even people who happen to be in that situation can't, in practice, know whether they are.

Seems just as plausible to me that if they're at the end of their child-bearing years they might abort what would have been their last (and in some cases only) child and not be able to conceive again.

Bird in the hand and all that.

Not only have we shifted the goal posts to what I agree is a highly non-central situation at best, but even people who happen to be in that situation can't, in practice, know whether they are.

Indeed. So let's focus on the modal case where people are overwhelmingly likely to conceive again after aborting a down syndrome baby.

Seems just as plausible to me that if they're at the end of their child-bearing years they might abort what would have been their last (and in some cases only) child and not be able to conceive again.

This is my point, that outside the cases of highly geriatric pregnancies we're talking about trading off a down syndrome child for a neurotypical child.

We could also trade off dumb and ugly and sad children for better ones, I guess. It's not a slope I'd care to find myself on and I have zero faith in others to not keep sliding down it.

Okay. So you do concede that in most cases we're talking about trading off down syndrome children for neurotypical children. Let's return to my original question to you.

Does a Down syndrome child entail a richer tapestry of experiences for the parent than a neurotypical child?

No, I don't concede that. There's nothing stopping parents from just having another child (outside of etc. etc.) and having both is much better than killing one and only having the other.

  • -10

There's nothing stopping parents from just having another child

Nothing outside of the finite human fertility window, of course.

We've addressed this and I invite you to move on to another topic. (And should mention that I'm about done with Motte time for the day)

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