Biden Truly Insensitive on Down Syndrome

Joe Biden is famous for gaffes. Once referring to his running mate he said, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy." Or when trying to endear himself to Indian Americans in Delaware he said, "you can't go into a 7-Eleven or Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent". No, he didn't mean either the way they sound. It's just that when it comes to social graces Biden is obliviously crass.

But his latest remark in reference to Sarah Palin's 4 month old son Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was beyond the pale. "I hear all this talk", Biden said, "about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy and difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect." He continued, "If you care so much about it, why don't you support stem cell research?"

I guess we are to think that Joe Biden cares more about little Trig Palin than his mom. After all, Sarah Palin is a bad mother for even thinking of running for VP with a special needs child. This is a close subject for me because my Grandmother is also the mother of five children. The middle child, my Aunt Debbie (now an adult in her 50's), has Down Syndrome. She is a fantastic bowler, exceptionally tidy, loves music, and even goes to work. My Grandmother has done an admirable job raising her and taking active roles in events like the Special Olympics.

Biden's argument holds no merit. Down Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder occurring in prenatal formation, unlike Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and other diseases that occur later in life. And even when it is detected in amniocentesis, it very often comes as a false positive. This is one of the reasons why my wife and I refused to even have an amniocentesis for Downs because there was no way we were terminating the pregnancy regardless of the outcome.

It's amazingly insensitive of Biden to involve the child of a candidate for political purposes. Especially when embryonic stem cell research has not helped a single patient so far. Not because it's not being done. It's just not being done with public funds. And seven years after the President's decision to not allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, amazing advances have occurred in the field using adult stem cells which have proven surprisingly flexible. One wonders whether these advances would have ever occurred if the door for embryonic stem cells had been thrown wide open. All that recent embryonic research can show are the negative effects of Down Syndrome on embryonic stem cells. Hard to see how a cure comes from a corrupted source.

The Down Syndrome Research Foundation considers embryonic research immoral and pointless in helping Down Syndrome people. Probably for the reason that Dr. John Langdon Down, for whom the syndrome is named, was deeply concerned about the welfare of those whose very humanity was denied by the majority. Embryonic research would be in direct conflict with that concern as one class of human life would have to be created and destroyed to benefit another.

Biden should tread very carefully before he attempts to use a candidate's child to push a political position that can't even help that child.