From the Wikipedia.org entry on Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21):
A 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91?93% of pregnancies with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated.[23] Physicians and ethicists are concerned about the ethical ramifications of this.[24] Conservative commentator George Will called it "eugenics by abortion".[25] Lord Brian Rix stated that "alas, the birth of a child with Down's syndrome is still considered by many to be an utter tragedy" and the "ghost of the biologist Sir Francis Galton, who founded the eugenics movement in 1885, still stalks the corridors of many a teaching hospital".[26] Doctor David Mortimer has argued in Ethics & Medicine that "Down's syndrome infants have long been disparaged by some doctors and government bean counters."[27] Some members[weasel words] of the disability rights movement "believe that public support for prenatal diagnosis and abortion based on disability contravenes the movement's basic philosophy and goals."[28]
Actor Peter Birkenhead wrote for the liberal news website Salon.com about his and his wife's own experience in ending a 18-week-pregnancy because of a Down syndrome diagnosis. He states that the parents of children with Down syndrome opposed to the abortions are "intruding into a usually private decision". He also states that "I'm sure the people behind this campaign have the best intentions, but the premise behind it is a condescending and dangerous one" and that their position "sacrifices the quality of the lives of thousands of (mostly poor) young women in the name of 'morality'."[29] A 1998 study of Finnish doctors found that "Only very few, pediatricians somewhat more often, thought that Down's syndrome is not a good enough reason for pregnancy termination, but more (15-21%) thought that current prenatal screenings in general are (partly) based on eugenic thinking."[30]