It’s Down Syndrome Day, but for how long?
Brian Skotko and Carolyn Moynihan
On World Down Syndrome Day (March 21) whom better to tune into than Brian Skotko, an American geneticist and paediatrician who has dedicated his professional career to service of people with Down and their families? Those people include his own younger sister, Kristin, of whom he said in a recent interview with Science magazine:
I got to see firsthand what it’s like to grow up with an extra chromosome. I learned along the way that some of the struggles are not defined by your chromosomes, but by the community that you live in.
MercatorNet first heard about Dr Skotko in 2005 when his ground-breaking research — as a Harvard Medical School post-graduate student — amongst mothers who had given birth to a baby with Down were published. His findings were a wake-up call to doctors.
These days he is co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, one of the leading children’s hospitals in the United States. The program’s vision statement reads: Our passion is to provide healthcare, research, and education that contribute to a world in which all people with Down syndrome are accepted, celebrated and have the opportunity to fully realize their potential.
In a brief Q&A with MercatorNet, Dr Skotko gives an idea of how the medical community is doing in terms of that vision. But first, watch the following short television interview and meet the man who is, surely, one of the most effective advocates for people of all ages and stages with Down syndrome.
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