I really enjoyed laughing at your side of this exchange . <| sep |> actually thats a really good idea that or a cloyster <| sep |> Yes , that particular edge case occurred to me after I posted . This is clearly worse than ON access times in general , so this is definitely a compelling reason why this shouldn ' t be the standard hash table for a language . <| sep |> Thanks for the help and suggestions , I ' ll look into the other ones . <| sep |> What will his life look like once his parents die , assuming they leave no assets ? I don ' t think there is a hard line , and what is too much is largely subjective , but there are absolutely hard questions you should ask yourself before making the decision . Also People with Down ' s Syndrome have wildly varying levels of mental function . Your nephew might be at the more advanced end , but AFAIK you wouldn ' t be able to see that on early screenings . You just see Down ' s Syndrome . In a case where severity can vary so greatly , I think people should make the decision based on the worst possible outcome .