Nearly 27,000 signatures have already been collected to counter these scandalous t-shirts, sold on Amazon.
"We want businesses that sell articles that incite hatred against minorities on Amazon to be banned from selling on Amazon", can we read in the petition which wants to prohibit the marketing of T-shirts promoting hate speech against people with Down syndrome (trisomy 21).
"We would like you to find a way to prevent these items from being listed on Amazon. If Amazon has such stock for distribution through Amazon prime, we would like said stock to be destroyed. Hate crime is no joke and is on the increase against people with learning disabilities. We hope to see Amazon help the Down's syndrome community fight hate crime. ", adds the text.
The Change.org petition therefore calls on the online retailer to take a real stand against these articles, which carry phrases such as "make Down syndrome go away".
For the moment, 27,000 signatures have been collected, but the counter continues to rise.
Contacted by The Independent, an Amazon spokesperson said: "All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to prosecution, including possible withdrawal from their account.".
What is trisomy 21?
Also called Down syndrome, trisomy 21 is a congenital malformation caused by the presence of an extra chromosome on the 21st pair of chromosomes. Individuals with Down's syndrome have 47 chromosomes instead of 46.
Trisomy 21 is usually diagnosed at birth and can cause learning disabilities in children and certain physical characteristics. Today, there are several techniques for performing prenatal diagnosis.
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts had succeeded (work published in the journal Nature, in 2014) to silence the third copy of chromosome 21. Obtained in-vitro, these results give hope to develop chromosome therapies, relayed by the media Sciences et Avenir. But the research will take some time.
In our country, in 2017, between 38,700 and 49,100 people were carriers of trisomy 21, according to trisomy21.org. "Screening for trisomy 21, which began in France about 40 years ago before being generalized in 1997, seems to have had a significant impact on the age pyramid of people with trisomy 21: around 50% of they are now over 40 years old and 30% are between 20 and 40 years old. The proportion of people with trisomy 21 under the age of 20 is only around 20%.", explains the site.