Bonnie Rochman

Recently, a CBS news crew traveled to Iceland, producing a report titled “Inside the country where Down syndrome is disappearing.” As much as it sounds like it, the headline is not clickbait or hyperbole: In Iceland, nearly every women who undergoes prenatal testing and whose fetus receives a diagnosis of Down syndrome decides to end her pregnancy. Each year, according to their sources, only a child or two is born with Down syndrome in Iceland.

We are a society obsessed with information. We’re constantly connected, click-click-clicking to access a steady stream of news, data, and social-media updates. Curiosity is a powerful motivator, but there’s one area in which our thirst for knowledge has been inconsistent: genetic testing.