Two pieces in todays Washington Post stun by their sheer coincidence. An op-ed column by Michael Gerson addresses what he calls "the new eugenics" illustrated by the pressure to abort exercised upon couples who are informed that their unborn child has Down syndrome. Ninety percent of those so diagnosed are aborted"eugenic abortions," Gerson calls them, wondering what this says about a drift toward social Darwinism. He wonders whether the example of Sarah Palinsson Trig will be morally instructive. The column is illustrated by a photograph of Charles de Gaulle holding his daughter Anne, who had Down syndrome and was lovingly cared for by him and his wife until her death at the age of 20.And then, on the first page of the Post, there is the story of the death of Thomas S. Vander Woude. A daily Mass-goer, he was working in his backyard with his twenty-year old son Joseph, who has Down syndrome. Somehow Joseph fell into a septic tank. His father jumped into the tank and submerged himself in sewage so he could push his son up from below and keep his head above the muck. Rescue workers arrived and pulled them out of the tank, but the father, who had been in the tank for 15 to 20 minutes, was unconscious and could not be revived.