How were people with Down Syndrome treated in the Middle Ages?

OK, this will tick a lot of people off, but lets get something straight. Today is not then. It's not even 1862 when “Down Syndrome” started to be used. So, before DS, they were “mongoloids. read more

Only Augustine in The City of God insisted that anyone born a man is born a rational soul, so people with Down Syndrome would also be absolved by priests (Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age). read more

Another writer in the Washington Post eloquently looked at the toll of this trend, on the experience with her Down Syndrome daughter. A 90% decrease in the incidence of a disease would ordinarily be considered a triumph. But, like deafness and other differently-abled people, Down sufferers and their families many not view themselves as diseased. read more

According to the archaeologists, the way the child was buried hints that Down’s syndrome was not necessarily stigmatised in the Middle Ages. Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder that delays a person’s growth and causes intellectual disability. People with Down’s syndrome have three copies of chromosome 21, rather than the usual two. read more