Friday, November 16, 2007

Trisomy 21 and Jerome Lejeune

I came across this article this evening on the life and work of Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the chromosomal pattern known as Trisomy 21, or Down's Syndrome. He was willing to risk his professional reputation in order to speak in defense of those born (or rather conceived) with this condition, when he saw that his discovery was being used for selective abortion. I love the quote, written to his wife after he blasted a high-profile abortion-favoring group of medical professionals, "This afternoon I lost my Nobel Prize."

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul?

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