My understanding is that women with down syndrome only have a 30-50% chance of fertility, and men are generally infertile. Additionally there are laws in place to prevent those with mental disabilities from being taken advantage of sexually, which lessens the chance of children even more. It’s a spontaneous mutation, so they wouldn’t be removed from the gene pool.
Realistically, gene editing will never be affordable for the vast majority of the world’s population. But today, abortion is chosen up to 93% of the time instead. If the alternative is a live, healthy birth, I can’t see any ethical issues.
My understanding is that women with down syndrome only have a 30-50% chance of fertility, and men are generally infertile. Additionally there are laws in place to prevent those with mental disabilities from being taken advantage of sexually, which lessens the chance of children even more. It’s a spontaneous mutation, so they wouldn’t be removed from the gene pool.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6603116/
If 99℅ of pregnancies are screened and the gene’s edited then, yeah, you’re effectively eliminating people with Down’s from our world.
Unless society collapses and the Quirk returns naturally.
Realistically, gene editing will never be affordable for the vast majority of the world’s population. But today, abortion is chosen up to 93% of the time instead. If the alternative is a live, healthy birth, I can’t see any ethical issues.
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pd.2910