Editing Down syndrome (section)

==History==
[[File:The Adoration of the Christ Child MET DT8852.jpg|thumb|Levitas and Reid have suggested that this [[early Netherlandish painting]], ''The Adoration of the Christ Child'', depicts a person with Down syndrome as one of the angels.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Levitas AS, Reid CS | title = An angel with Down syndrome in a sixteenth century Flemish Nativity painting | journal = American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A | volume = 116A | issue = 4 | pages = 399–405 | date = February 2003 | pmid = 12522800 | doi = 10.1002/ajmg.a.10043 | quote = We have identified a 16th-century Flemish Nativity painting in which one angelic figure appears distinctly different from other individuals in the painting with an appearance of Down syndrome. | s2cid = 8821338 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Portrait of John Langdon Down (c 1870) by Sydney Hodges.jpg|thumb|left|[[John Langdon Down|John Langdon Haydon Down]] — first described Down syndrome]]

English physician [[John Langdon Down]] first described Down syndrome in 1862, recognizing it as a distinct type of mental disability, and again in a more widely published report in 1866.<ref name=Hick2012/><ref>{{cite journal|year= 1866|title= Observations on an ethnic classification of idiots|url= http://www.neonatology.org/classics/down.html|journal= Clinical Lecture Reports, London Hospital|volume= 3|pages= 259–62| vauthors = Down JL |access-date= 2006-07-14|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060615010343/http://www.neonatology.org/classics/down.html|archive-date= 2006-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=John Langdon Down, 1828–1896|publisher=Royal Society of Medicine Press|year=1998|isbn=978-1-85315-374-7| vauthors = Conor WO }}</ref> [[Édouard Séguin]] described it as separate from [[cretinism]] in 1844.<ref name=Evans2009p12/><ref name="Neri2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Neri G, Opitz JM | title = Down syndrome: comments and reflections on the 50th anniversary of Lejeune's discovery | journal = American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A | volume = 149A | issue = 12 | pages = 2647–2654 | date = December 2009 | pmid = 19921741 | doi = 10.1002/ajmg.a.33138 | s2cid = 12945876 }}</ref> By the 20th century, Down syndrome had become the most recognizable form of mental disability.

Due to his perception that children with Down syndrome shared facial similarities with those of [[Mongoloid|Blumenbach's Mongoloid race]], John Langdon Down used the term "[[Mongolian idiocy|mongoloid]]".<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Reisner H | date = 2013 | title = Essentials of Rubin's Pathology | publisher = Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | pages = 129–131 | isbn = 978-1-4511-8132-6}}</ref> He felt that the existence of Down syndrome confirmed that all peoples were genetically related.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Gould S | date = 2010 | title = The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company | pages = 166 | isbn = 978-0-393-34083-9 }}</ref> In the 1950s with discovery of the underlying cause as being related to chromosomes, concerns about the race-based nature of the name increased.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Keevak M | date = 2011 | title = Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking | publisher = Princeton University Press | page = 120 | isbn = 
978-1-4008-3860-8 }}</ref>

In 1961, a group of nineteen scientists suggested that "mongolism" had "misleading connotations" and had become "an embarrassing term".<ref name="Rod2011" /> The [[World Health Organization]] (WHO) dropped the term in 1965 after a request by the delegation from the [[Mongolian People's Republic]].<ref name="pmid153994">{{cite journal | vauthors = Howard-Jones N | title = On the diagnostic term "Down's disease" | journal = Medical History | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 102–4 | date = January 1979 | pmid = 153994 | pmc = 1082401 | doi = 10.1017/s0025727300051048 }}</ref> While this terminology continued to be used until the late twentieth century,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book | vauthors = Driscoll MW |title=The Whites are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection |date=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1121-7 |location=Durham}}</ref>{{Rp|page=21}} it is now considered unacceptable and is no longer in common use.

In antiquity, many infants with disabilities were either killed or abandoned.<ref name=Evans2009p12/> 
In June 2020, the earliest incidence of Down syndrome was found in genomic evidence from an infant that was buried before 3200&nbsp;BC at [[Poulnabrone dolmen]] in [[Ireland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0617/1148049-genomes-study/|title=Genetics study shines light on early periods of Ireland's human history|author=<!--Not stated--> |date= 17 June 2020|website= www.rte.ie|publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |access-date= 17 June 2020}}</ref>
Researchers believe that a number of historical pieces of art portray Down syndrome, including pottery from the [[pre-Columbian]] Tumaco-La Tolita culture in present-day [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]],<ref name="BernalBriceno">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bernal JE, Briceno I | title = Genetic and other diseases in the pottery of Tumaco-La Tolita culture in Colombia-Ecuador | journal = Clinical Genetics | volume = 70 | issue = 3 | pages = 188–191 | date = September 2006 | pmid = 16922718 | doi = 10.1111/j.1399-0004.2006.00670.x | s2cid = 27716271 }}</ref> and the 16th-century painting ''The Adoration of the Christ Child''.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Evans-Martin FF | title = Down Syndrome | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BJf2JgWbYoYC | series = Genes & Disease | location = New York | publisher = Infobase Publishing | date = 2009 | page = 13 | isbn = 9781438119502 | access-date = 20 March 2020 | quote = There is also very little representation of Down syndrome in art over the centuries. Only a few paintings, such as the sixteenth century Flemish painting ''The Adoration of the Christ Child'', have been identified in which characters appear to have facial features and other characteristics typical of Down syndrome.}}</ref><ref name=Evans2009p1314>{{cite book| vauthors = Evans-Martin FF |title=Down Syndrome|year=2009|publisher=Chelsea House|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4381-1950-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/downsyndrome0000evan/page/13 13]–14|url=https://archive.org/details/downsyndrome0000evan|url-access=registration}}</ref>

In the 20th century, many individuals with Down syndrome were institutionalized, few of the associated medical problems were treated, and most people died in infancy or early adulthood. With the rise of the [[eugenics movement]], 33 of the then 48 [[U.S. state]]s and several countries began programs of forced sterilization of individuals with Down syndrome and comparable degrees of disability. [[Action T4]] in [[Nazi Germany]] saw the systematic murder of people with Down syndrome made public policy.<ref name="Wright2011">{{cite book| vauthors = Wright D |title= Downs: The history of a disability |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|access-date= 25 August 2012|date=25 August 2011|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-956793-5|pages= 104–108|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130528115732/http://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|archive-date= 28 May 2013}}</ref>

With the discovery of [[karyotype]] techniques in the 1950s it became possible to identify abnormalities of chromosomal number or shape.<ref name=Neri2009/> In 1959 [[Jérôme Lejeune]] reported the discovery that Down syndrome resulted from an extra chromosome.<ref name=Hick2012/> However, Lejeune's claim to the discovery has been disputed,<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Wright D |title= Downs: The history of a disability|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|access-date= 25 August 2012|date= 25 August 2011|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-956793-5|page=145|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528115732/http://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|archive-date= 28 May 2013}}</ref> and in 2014 the Scientific Council of the French Federation of Human Genetics unanimously awarded its Grand Prize to his colleague [[Marthe Gautier]] for her role in this discovery.<ref>{{cite news|title= Trisomie: une pionnière intimidée|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2014/02/03/trisomie-une-pionniere-intimidee_4359331_1650684.html|access-date=25 March 2014|newspaper= Le Monde|date= Feb 3, 2014 |language=fr}}</ref> The discovery took place in the laboratory of [[Raymond Turpin]] at the Hôpital Trousseau in Paris, France.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Gautier M, Harper PS |year= 2009|title= Fiftieth anniversary of trisomy 21: returning to a discovery|url= http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/women_science_medicine/_pdfs/Trisomy%2021%20article.pdf|journal= Human Genetics|volume= 126|issue= 2|pages= 317–324|doi= 10.1007/s00439-009-0690-1|s2cid= 30299551|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170202012842/http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/women_science_medicine/_pdfs/Trisomy%2021%20article.pdf|archive-date= 2017-02-02}}</ref> Jérôme Lejeune and Marthe Gautier were both his students.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pain E | title = History of science. After more than 50 years, a dispute over Down syndrome discovery | journal = Science | volume = 343 | issue = 6172 | pages = 720–721 | date = February 2014 | pmid = 24531949 | doi = 10.1126/science.343.6172.720 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2014Sci...343..720P }}</ref>

As a result of this discovery, the condition became known as trisomy&nbsp;21.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Wright D |title= Downs: The history of a disability |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|access-date= 25 August 2012|date= 25 August 2011|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-956793-5|pages= 9–10|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130528115732/http://books.google.com/books?id=0FMKNv_ALRYC&pg=PA200|archive-date= 28 May 2013}}</ref> Even before the discovery of its cause, the presence of the syndrome in all races, its association with older maternal age, and its rarity of recurrence had been noticed. Medical texts had assumed it was caused by a combination of inheritable factors that had not been identified. Other theories had focused on injuries sustained during birth.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Warkany J |title= Congenital Malformations |location= Chicago |publisher= Year Book Medical Publishers, Inc |year= 1971 |pages= 313–14|isbn= 978-0-8151-9098-1}}</ref>
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