Meet Lucas, the first ever baby with Down's Syndrome to be Crowned the Gerber Baby

Lucas Warren, of Dalton, Georgia, is the baby food company’s “spokesbaby of the year” and the first infant with Down syndrome to capture the title since the contest’s start in 2010 and in Gerber's 90 year history.

“He’s very outgoing and never meets a stranger,” Lucas’s mother, Cortney, told TODAY Parents. “He loves to play, loves to laugh and loves to make other people laugh.”

Bill Partyka, CEO and president of Gerber Foods, said that the team chose Lucas after sifting through more than 140,000 entries because of his “happy expression.” 

Every year, we choose the baby who best exemplifies Gerber’s longstanding heritage of recognizing that every baby is a Gerber baby,” said Partyka. “This year, Lucas is the perfect fit.”

Jason, Lucas’s father, said is hoping that Gerber’s decision to feature a special-needs baby would promote more acceptance of those with disabilities.

“We’re hoping this will impact everyone — that it will shed a little bit of light on the special needs community and help more individuals with special needs be accepted and not limited,” he said. “They have the potential to change the world, just like everybody else.”

"Still I feel a certain level of discomfort, not with Lucas, but with the way people are reacting to the news. That is to say, everyone is reacting positively and with great enthusiasm. This would be a very good thing, if not for the fact that a certain large percentage of those applauding Gerber today still support the violent and systematic slaughter of children just like Lucas," wrote Matt Walsh following the media frenzy. 

"We seem to always want it both ways as a culture. We want to feel good about a Gerber baby with Downs, but we don't want to actually make the sacrifice and take the step required to protect babies with Downs from being exterminated. Imagine if some baby food company in Germany had selected a Jewish child as their "Gerber baby" in 1941, and even the Nazi sympathizers gushed about how warm and fuzzy it made them feel inside. One would be justified — even, I think, morally obliged — to remind those folks that it's not warmth and fuzziness they ought to be feeling; it's guilt."

Walsh went on, "...if you support abortion, you are part of the reason why the population of Lucases in America has decreased by at least 30 percent in recent years, while in some parts of Europe it has been almost entirely eradicated. Again: you cannot have it both ways. You cannot tell me that Lucas deserves to be the Gerber baby but he doesn't necessarily deserve to be alive. That position is morally insane, and you should not be allowed to hold it without being harshly and consistently challenged."






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