Mark Leach is an attorney with a Master's in Bioethics, focusing on health law and public contracts. His interest in bioethics concerns the issues surrounding prenatal testing and Down syndrome.

Two-thirds + reduction rate of Down syndrome births in Australia & New Zealand

Graph from de Graaf, et al. Estimation of the number of people with Down syndrome in Australia & New Zealand, Genet Med 2022 Dec; 24(112):2568-2577. Dr. Skotko and his team of researchers are out with updated estimates of the impact of prenatal testing and selective termination on births of babies with Down syndrome, this time for Australia and New Zealand. Continue Reading

Prenatal Genetic Testing in a Post-Roe World

A recent publication by my colleagues and me address the various implications of Roe v. Wade being overturned for the administration of prenatal genetic testing. Continue Reading

Recommendations for Improving How Prenatal Genetic Testing is Done

From a historic summit of stakeholders come 20 recommendations for improving prenatal genetic testing to avoid bias against those with disabilities. Continue Reading

Eugenics: the past, present, & future

A webinar is now available online that covers the history of eugenics, it's present application, and what the future holds. Continue Reading

Webinar on Eugenics & Prenatal Testing: Thursday, October 27, 2022

ANNOUNCEMENT: Continue Reading

Europe: putting the “EU” into Eugenics

Researchers Dr. Brian Skotko, Frank Buckley, and Gert de Graaf, have updated their population estimates for lives with Down syndrome in Europe. They show that Europe is putting the "eu" into eugenics. Continue Reading

life can be full of compassion and love

To our readers who are parents, what are the most important lessons you learned between your first child being born and his or her first birthday? Continue Reading

These States Should Ban Wrongful Birth Lawsuits

New York Times' Maps of State Abortion Bans Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, twenty states have enacted or implemented bans on abortion. To be consistent with their policy making, almost half of them now need to ban wrongful birth lawsuits. Continue Reading

Largest Reduction of Births with Down syndrome following introduction of MaterniT21, Harmony, & other cfDNA screens

Graph from de Graaf, Buckley, and Skotko 2022 Researchers have updated their analysis of publicly reported data on the number of births and lives with Down syndrome in the United States. Though not entirely terrible, that orange bar in the graph above is ominous for future updates. Continue Reading