If you read the paper (Am J Med Genetics, 2003, (116(4)),399-405) you will find that: 1. This is a picture of an individual with Down Syndrome, depicted as an angel (not an angel with Down Syndrome). 2. It is not only the facial features that identify the syndrome, it is also the small hands (another characteristic of the syndrome), markedly different from all the other hands in the picture. 3. The reason it was important to question whetheror not Down Syndrome was a "modern disease" in 1968 was this: It was long known that babies with Down Syndrome were more commonly born to mothers 40 or older. The discovery of the Trisomy 21 was only a few years old, and not universally accepted, in part because it did not explain the association with advanced maternal age. If it could be shown that Down Syndrome existed before many children were born to mothers over 30, it would add to the weight of evidence for the trisomy as the cause. 4. The medical science of the 16th century and earlier did not associate dysmorphic features with intellectual disability. We cannot know how the other people in this picture (a patron's family? the artist's family? we do not know) regarded this child. Favorably enough to have included him or her in the picture, is all we can know.
1. This is a picture of an individual with Down Syndrome, depicted as an angel (not an angel with Down Syndrome).
2. It is not only the facial features that identify the syndrome, it is also the small hands (another characteristic of the syndrome), markedly different from all the other hands in the picture.
3. The reason it was important to question whetheror not Down Syndrome was a "modern disease" in 1968 was this: It was long known that babies with Down Syndrome were more commonly born to mothers 40 or older. The discovery of the Trisomy 21 was only a few years old, and not universally accepted, in part because it did not explain the association with advanced maternal age. If it could be shown that Down Syndrome existed before many children were born to mothers over 30, it would add to the weight of evidence for the trisomy as the cause.
4. The medical science of the 16th century and earlier did not associate dysmorphic features with intellectual disability. We cannot know how the other people in this picture (a patron's family? the artist's family? we do not know) regarded this child. Favorably enough to have included him or her in the picture, is all we can know.