{"id":545,"date":"2011-02-18T13:16:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T13:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html"},"modified":"2011-02-18T13:16:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T13:16:56","slug":"what-makes-a-superior-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a &#8220;Superior&#8221; Race?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched <a href=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/debate-over-prenatal-testing-for-down-syndrome-continues\/\" target=\"_blank\">an interview<\/a> this morning with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brianskotko.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Brian Skotko<\/a> of the Children&#8217;s Hospital in Boston and Dr. Lachlan Forrow, Director of Ethics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The interview centers around the new blood test that can detect a fetus with Down syndrome prenatally in a non-invasive manner during the first trimester of pregnancy. I have already written some thoughts about the blood test (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/why-screen-for-down-syndrome.html\" target=\"_blank\">Why Screen for Down Syndrome?<\/a>&#8220;), and I recommend watching this interview for more information about the ethical and medical questions it raises. The highlight of the interview for me was when Dr. Forrow was asked why we wouldn&#8217;t want to create a &#8220;superior race&#8221;? He responded by quoting political commentator George Will, who has a son with Down syndrome. Will once wrote that people with Down syndrome have &#8220;a congenital inability to hate.&#8221; So, Dr. Forrow asked, &#8220;What exactly is a superior race?&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Click <a href=\"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/debate-over-prenatal-testing-for-down-syndrome-continues\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to watch the interview.&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched an interview this morning with Dr. Brian Skotko of the Children&#8217;s Hospital in Boston and Dr. Lachlan Forrow, Director of Ethics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The interview centers around the new blood test that can detect a fetus with Down syndrome prenatally in a non-invasive manner during the first trimester of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Makes a &quot;Superior&quot; Race? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Makes a &quot;Superior&quot; Race? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I watched an interview this morning with Dr. Brian Skotko of the Children&#8217;s Hospital in Boston and Dr. Lachlan Forrow, Director of Ethics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The interview centers around the new blood test that can detect a fetus with Down syndrome prenatally in a non-invasive manner during the first trimester of&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-18T13:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Makes a \"Superior\" Race? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Makes a \"Superior\" Race? - Thin Places","og_description":"I watched an interview this morning with Dr. Brian Skotko of the Children&#8217;s Hospital in Boston and Dr. Lachlan Forrow, Director of Ethics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The interview centers around the new blood test that can detect a fetus with Down syndrome prenatally in a non-invasive manner during the first trimester of&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-02-18T13:16:56+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html","name":"What Makes a \"Superior\" Race? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-18T13:16:56+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-18T13:16:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/what-makes-a-superior-race.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Makes a &#8220;Superior&#8221; Race?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}