Just because you know my daughter has Down syndrome doesn’t mean you know her.

Articles worth reading about missionaries, money, embryo selection, and more...

Both the right and the left have more to learn.

Seven posts from 2013 written by others for my blog, all related to Down syndrome.

Down syndrome in ancient art, Jesus isn't white, men doing housework, and more...

What would you do if you heard your daughter had run away, hurt a toddler, and scribbled on the wall of the nursery?

What were your favorite books of 2013?

Jimmy Jenson's story inspires me. And it makes me very sad, because across the globe people believe that a life like his is not possible for their child.

What reading is on your bedside table this week?

A summary of the posts this past month in honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month addressing the question "Should we try to cure Down syndrome?"

Professor John Swinton "The most hedonistic, intellectually astute athlete can be ill and in need of healing (restoration to right relationship with God) and the most deeply impaired individuals can be healthy and indeed beautiful."

Alison Piepmeier explains her suspicions about new research related to Down syndrome: "My description that I’m now trying to make into a catch phrase is that disability is an embraceable form of human diversity."

"I wonder if there's any hope of entering an age with a new story, a story that isn't as dramatic as Heath White's or Chloe Ashton's, a story that doesn't rely upon an entry point of grief, a story that doesn't need the tension of transformation."

"My name is Tryn Miller, and I would like to tell you about growing up with Down syndrome."

Stephanie Brock reflects on her son Adam and Down syndrome: "...we want to cure Down syndrome because it's not self-imposed, and we chafe as humans against anything we didn't decide or do for or to ourselves. We want to cure disability because it's not the right kind of difference, or difficulty, or suffering."

A guest post from Notre Dame Professor of Ethics Hans Reinders today: "Of course it can argued that [people with Down syndrome] at least have this one extra chromosome in common, otherwise they would not be identified as people with Down syndrome, but this observation tells us next to nothing about their lives. It does not inform the debate on whether humanity would be better off without DS in any significant way."

Why has my fear that Penny wouldn't make friends continued all these years?

Philosophy Professor Aaron Cobb reflects on the life and death of his son Sam, who was born with trisomy 18, and what that might mean for research to silence trisomies: "we should consider whether these new techniques will heighten the fearful tendencies that push us into desperate and despairing attempts to immunize ourselves and our children from our fragility as humans."

Meet the pro-choice, secular Manhattanite whose study of society’s outcasts prepared her to welcome a son with Down syndrome.