The Link Between Down Syndrome and Alzheimers Disease Essay example --

The Link Between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease The individuals with Disabilities Education Act states that "all children with disabilities, including mental retardation, be educated to the maximum extent appropriate with students who are not disabled" (2). In an ideal world, society would have no problem following this decree, but the world is less than perfect and, therefore, stigmas are unfortunately attached to those suffering from mental disabilities, especially the mentally retarded. One has to question whether this group of people deserves these stigmas. Having grown up with two severely retarded cousins and, for that matter, a great uncle suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, I often wondered as to what was happening within their brains. It was evident that they were unable to respond to me in a normal fashion, but I challenged whether this was just a veneer. Being a spiritual person and believing the mind to be akin to 'the soul', I always felt it must be separate from the brain. A part of me hoped that their minds were sti ll cognizant even though their brain appeared to have a different physiology and they seemed to be unable to respond to me in a normal fashion. However, upon researching the link present between Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease, I began to question whether my previous beliefs were indeed true. I think the questioning of this raises ethical issues about how we treat the mentally disabled and gives quite an argument for the brain = behavior debate. As more and more adults live longer, age-associated mental disease is becoming more and more of a concern. Present estimations state that soon nearly 10 million Americans will suffer from the disabling disease called Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's s... ... Risk of Down Syndome with Increasing Maternal and Paternal Age, Good Detailed Site http://www.lifesciences.napier.ac.uk/bws/courses/projects/downsynd/home.htm 9)Alzheimer's Disease and People with Mental Retardation, Good Detailed Site http://www.thearc.org/faqs/almr.html 10)Developmental Disabilities and Alzheimer's Disease, Good Detailed Site by The Arc http://www.thearc.org/misc/alzbk.html 11)Epidemiology of Alzheimer Disease in Mental Retardation, Periodicals Index http://www.aamr.org/index.shtml 12)Fact Sheet: Alzheimer's Disease, Family Caregiver Alliance http://www.caregiver.org/factsheets/diagnoses/alzheimers.html 13)Harvard Researchers Link Alzheimer's to Problem With Chromosome Segregation Presenilin Proteins are Found in Cell Structures Involved in Mitosis, Recent Press Release http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/897alzheimer.html