World Down Syndrome Day...

March 21st is World Down's Syndrome Day. We don't see so many people with Down's Syndrome as we did back in my childhood. Unfortunately this is not because anyone has found a cure. What happens is that the prenatal screening carried out aims to eradicate the syndrome by identifying the babies who carry the extra chromosome and "encouraging" the parents to have an abortion.

All sorts of arguments are used to explain the dreadful lack in quality of life that the child will experience in order to get parents to make the "right" decision. It seems to work, because, according to the most common statistic I've seen on the internet, over 90% of babies with Down's Syndrome in America are aborted. That works out as 9 out of every ten babies. And, in 2009, a report in the Daily Telegraph estimated that three babies with Down's were aborted every day.

People are attempting to redress the balance. Francis Phillips, who has a child with Down's, has posted an excellent article in the Catholic Herald on the topic, and she highlighted the following video...

Some people suggest that by aborting the babies with the abnormality the disorder will be eradicated. However, it doesn't work like that. The chromosomal abnormality is caused by the faulty division of chromosomes in the gametes of the mother - two copies of chromosome 21 are carried in an egg rather than one, and when the egg is fertilised, the sperm adds another copy. The faulty division of chromosomes is impossible to eradicate because of its random nature (it's a mutation) - though the frequency of this fault is known to increase as a woman gets older.

So the destruction of foetuses with Down's Syndrome is akin to killing an individual who suffered a major disability through an accident or illness in later life...

Oh, sorry, I forgot. That sort of thing is being done already.

The Pitfalls Of Cat-Friendly Cafés...

I suppose it was the next logical step from the stunt pulled by Ikea when it let 100 furry felines loose in one of the stores overnight. Presumably people just aren't satisfied with the knowledge that the cats had been on the furniture...

A Turin café-owner has decided that her customers need the opportunity to be surrounded by cats whilst they enjoy an espresso. Despite being a catoholic, I forsee one or two problems with this.

I suspect that the café will suffer an increased problem with shoplifters - wouldn't you be tempted to opt for an extra "take-away," especially if it actually crawled into your shopping bag of its own volition. Bags and boxes are well-documented kitty-magnets.

There will also be the high probability of an increased problem with stray hairs in the gelato. Even with just two kitties, I find that cat hairs regularly adorn my tea towels.

And finally, I suspect that the sales of coffee will go down. Very few cats like coffee. On the other hand, sales of saucers of milk will increase, but I think that these are less lucrative for café owners...