3. TIL Down syndrome is practically non-existent in Iceland. Since introducing the ...

TIL Down syndrome is practically non-existent in Iceland. Since introducing the screening tests back in the early 2000s, nearly 100% of women whose fetus tested positive ended up terminating the pregnancy. It has resulted in Iceland having one of the lowest rates of Down syndrome in the world.

This raises a lot of questions about the culture in Iceland as a whole. I totally support this idea, I'm honestly just curious about a couple of things:

  • How does Icelandic culture handle pro-choice VS pro-life? Is their education aimed more at the preservation of a healthy population or towards personal choice, and everyone is just on the same page?

  • Does the test cover other diseases/abnormalities? And if so which ones?

  • As a question to the reddit, do you think these genetic tests should be a mandatory thing for all expecting mothers, regardless if they decide to terminate based on the findings?

  • Ok so I get that roughly 4/5 mothers opt in for the screening, but having 80% of your population agree on a test that benefits the whole should suggest that there is something beneficial to it.

I'm sure I'll think of something more to add, if I do I'll just edit the post and annotate it.

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