The field of Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is evolving. Medical and health care are more available. Behavioral rehabilitation techniques are made more precise and are gaining in efficiency. Each and every family concerned with the condition, not only those in Western societies, should be able to benefit from these progresses.
Even if we are only at the beginning, the prospect for an efficient cognitive pharmacotherapy is better than a few years ago. Promising perspectives also exist regarding genetic and epigenetic therapeutic approaches. The latter years have witnessed important progresses in research thanks to the creation of animal models of trisomy 21. Clinical applications at the human level have already begun.
And yet, at the same time, in a growing number of Western countries, in particular, the right to be born is denied to fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome who are aborted within the first months of pregnancy.
The paper summarizes major information regarding the present state of the question and what may be reasonably expected in the near and longer-term future for persons with Down syndrome.
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