Baby Doe v. The Prenatal Clinic

January 01, 2020

In 1866 British physician, John Langdon Down, for whom the syndrome is now named, first described Down syndrome, as “Mongolism.”  The term Down syndrome didn’t become the accepted term until the early 1970s.

January 03, 2023

The Victorian physician Dr John Langdon Down is best remembered for having, in 1866, identified a specific group of patients whose characteristics were similar in character. They had upward slanting eyes, flattening of the back of the head and poorly controlled and fissured tongues. Nobody had identified this special group previously, and over the next 20 years the word “Mongolian” was used to describe people we would now call people with Down’s syndrome.

February 23, 2023

Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that includes a combination of birth defects. Affected individuals have some degree of intellectual disability, characteristic facial features and, often, heart defects and other health problems. The severity of these problems varies greatly among affected individuals. 

May 28, 2023

A disagreement over the discovery of the cause of Down’s syndrome has resurfaced in France more than 50 years after the findings were published. The dispute erupted again at the French Federation of Human Genetics' (FFGH) seventh biennial congress on human and medical genetics in Bordeaux at the end of last month.