Posted on 08/21/2017 7:34:34 AM PDT by Salvation
Most of you have probably heard or read the reports trumpeting the “eradication” of Down syndrome in Iceland). The problem is that what is being termed “eradicating” the “problem” actually means that those with Down syndrome are being put to death. The celebratory language is all too similar to the way we once spoke of wiping out malaria by killing infected mosquitoes. But of course children in the womb are not mosquitoes; they are human beings, love and willed by God. Imagine saying that we had eradicated malaria by killing every person who had it!
A low point in the article linked above comes at the end, when a proponent of aborting babies who likely have Down syndrome is quoted as saying,
“We don’t look at abortion as a murder. We look at it as a thing that we ended. We ended a possible life that may have had a huge complication … preventing suffering for the child and for the family. And I think that is more right than seeing it as a murder—that’s so black and white. Life is gray.”
Well, pardon me for considering murder to be so black and white! One minute a heart is beating heart, the next minute it’s not. The “thing” that you ended is a human life. Calling such a child a “possible life” is scientifically dishonest. A beating heart does not exist in something that is possibly alive; he or she is alive. No linguistic gymnastics can legitimately describe the situation otherwise.
Further, “preventing suffering” by killing the patient is an illustration of the twisted logic of the culture of death. Death is the increasing being proposed as the solution to today’s problems. If you—or more perniciously, “we”—decide that your life is not worth living, we will kill you and call ourselves compassionate for doing so.
The greatest tragedy in all of this is that we veto the gift of God. Some of God’s gifts come in paradoxical packages; those with disabilities and special needs have much to teach us and many ways to bless us. Without them we may never reach our full humanity, which is meant to include compassion, humility, reverence, and respect. Not one of us is perfect. All of us have difficulties that require support from others. When we forget or reject this we lose an important aspect of our humanity: interdependence.
Iceland is not alone in this; much of the rest of the world has also refused to accept the disabled into our communities.
Here in the United States, this is perhaps most sadly evidenced by the fact that more than 90% of unborn children with poor prenatal diagnoses are aborted. Perhaps the parents are informed that their child will have Down syndrome or a birth defect that will lead to a lifetime of challenges and an early death.
The pressure placed on such families to abort is often enormous. They are told, “It’s the right thing to do,” or, “You shouldn’t make your child suffer.” Some are even made to feel that they are doing something unethical by bringing forth such children. In addition, parents are often pressured to make a decision quickly; doctors may want the decision to terminate made within a matter of days.
Is there such a thing as a life not worth living? Many in our culture seem to believe that there is. A “therapy” increasingly proposed in today’s culture of death is killing the patient in order to solve the “problem.” People, it would seem, do not have problems, they are the problem, and thus their elimination makes the problem go away. Never mind that a human person of inestimable value is actually killed … Problem solved! Thus has arisen idea that an appropriate “treatment” for disabled unborn children is to kill them. Of course death is neither a treatment nor a therapy; it cannot be considered an acceptable solution for the one who loses his or her life. Yet this is often the advice given to parents faced with this situation.
All of this “advice” and pressure goes a long way toward explaining the dismal abortion rates of the potentially disabled unborn. We in the Church cannot remain silent in the face of this; we must reach out compassionately to families experiencing such a crisis. Many of them are devastated by the news that their baby may have serious disabilities. Often they descend into shock and are overwhelmed by fear, conflicting emotions, and even anger toward God or others. Sometimes the greatest gifts we can give them are time, information, and the framework of faith. Simply considering some of the following may help:
What about those who aborted their babies? We as a Church cannot avoid our responsibility to declare the dignity and worth of the disabled. More than ever, our world needs the Church’s testimony, for this 90% statistic is a startling one. But even as we witness to the dignity of the disabled and to the wrongness of abortion, we must also embrace those who chose abortion and now struggle with having made that decision. We are called to reconcile and to bring healing to all who have faced this crisis and fallen. Many were pressured and felt alone and afraid. We offer this embrace through confession and through healing ministries like Project Rachel, which offers counseling, spiritual direction, support groups, and prayer services. Even as the Church speaks out against abortion, she must also reconcile those who have fallen under the weight of these heavy issues.
Tomorrow I will write a little bit more on this topic and present a parable of sorts.
Here are some resources for more information:
National Catholic Partnership on Disability
Project Rachel (Post-abortion healing)
Be Not Afraid (Outreach to parents who have received a difficult prenatal diagnosis)
Parental Partners for Life (Support information and encouragement for carrying to term after receiving an adverse prenatal diagnosis as well as support for raising a child with special needs)
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Then they’ll import 4th world inbred dirt eaters by the bushel.
Icelandic news sources are saying that this report is false:
I know the Icelandic band Sigur Ros has a dance troupe in one of their videos called the Perlan Theater Group, and all their members are people with Down’s Syndrome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L64BcCRDAE
I think the problem is the percentage of mothers who think abortion is the right answer, not some sort of government-enforced eugenics.
The parents of children with Down Syndrome are typically genetically normal. So the only way a child can be aborted for it is if it is discovered during a prenatal examination blood test.
Unless, of course, doctors are encouraged to kill children evidencing the syndrome after birth.
This doesn’t eliminate the “problem.” Women are still conceiving babies with Down’s Syndrome. To put an end to the problem, I propose that Icelanders all get sterilized. There will be no more babies with Down’s Syndrome.
Of course the m*slims will not get sterilized, and will replace all the Icelanders in 114 years. But that’s happening now anyway, just slower.
You haven’t told us enough. Names,please.
Tell me who is “importing 4th world inbred dirt eaters by the bushel.”
Name a “4th world dirt eater.”
Would you expect a priest or any Christian, to look at a human being created in the Image and Likeness of God, and call that person a 4th world dirt eater?
Your comment does not tell us a lot about other people, but it sure tells us a lot about you.
What should we call you?
Oops, I meant to send the previous post to you.
Absolutely fool-proof way to get rid of every human problem.
The elite snobs like David Rockefeller agree with you, and they do have a depopulation plan. Estimates are that they would like to see a 90% reduction. And the USA has to be taken down to get this done.
They no longer think they need the peons, because AI, Robots, self driving cars, and other technology mean that the don’t need maids, butlers, chaffers, etc. You get the picture.
If these “intellectuals” had any intellect they would know how stupid their plots are. But they don’t, so they just continue to live and plot in their ignorance.
My wife had a premature rupture of membranes.
Basically, her water broke at less than 17 weeks.
Our wonderful doctor never even talked about doing anything buy trying to keep our little Bear. Others told us that Little Bear would be disabled, in pain, and that we were horrible selfish people to “put your child through that”.
My wife had four months of bed rest, followed by 71 days in the NICU for my daughter. She is now three, and while she is very small you wouldn’t know what she went through.
I am very grateful for our wonderful doctor. Most OBGYN’s would have not allowed us to do anything but induce labor. Many locally were not happy with our doctor for trying to keep her.
I know what you’re saying about Rockefeller and the anti-humanist elite.
It’s the radical ecology people, too. Some of them actually profess themselves to favor of the extinction of our species.
Down Syndrome babies today. Cracker babies tomorrow. Slippery slope. There will always be the next group to be exterminated. It’ll never end.
Why are anti-abortion people in American obsessed with attacking Iceland? Leave Iceland alone. They can do what they want in their own country. It’s no American’s business.
Get off your holier than thou high horse.
My meaning is as the west aborts its future, its all too willing to import people with ten times more problems into the population. You know damn well what’s going on.
Thanks for sharing.
Downs Syndrome isn’t a disease that is happens because the mother or father is a “carrier” of it. It happens at conception, when something goes awry genetically and the chromosomes get screwed up. Although the chances increase as the mother ages, a woman of any age could have a baby with Down Syndrome. A non-pregnant woman, or a man, could be tested to see if she or he is a carrier for, say, cystic fibrosis, but no non-pregnant woman, and no man, could be tested to see whether she or he is a carrier for Downs Syndrome.
Do they end the life in those cases?
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi
The US, Europe, Japan, Australia, etc....are First World countries.
Russia, China, India, Brazil are considered by some to be 2nd world.
http://brilliantmaps.com/first-second-third-worlds/
You may not have noticed that my post,was satirical. The point was that humans are “carriers” of humanity. Get rid of humankind, and presto change-o, no more human problems.
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