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Some of the deformities are lethal. Others are not. A few fall in a gray area: The physical problems might be reparable through surgery, but the operations are risky and grueling. One patient who had an abortion at 25 weeks in November said she could not bear to imagine surgeons cutting open her daughter's tiny chest to rebuild her heart. The thought of her Emma spending months of her childhood in the hospital overwhelmed the woman, a 30-year-old technology educator from Virginia who asked to be identified by her middle name, Paige.

"Part of me just wanted to let her die," Paige said. "Is that horrible?"

Yes. Yes, it is. You are a horrible person, Paige.

FWIW, my wife had to have reconstructive heart surgery at 10 months of age, and has had 3 more open heart surgeries since then. Thankfully, my in-laws aren't selfish, bloodthirsty murderers.

Let's pretend this is a Spiritual Diagnostic Blog and we're considering a case where the sickness is baffling and the need for a cure is urgent.

I have been told by so many women that they aborted their baby "for its own good."

These women baffle me. What I notice is that they feel they have unselfishly sacrificed THEIR maternal feelings, they have taken the suffering upon THEMSELVES, in order to mercifully spare their child, and maybe the rest of their family..

In other words, they might experience grief, nightmares, haunting, long-term anguish, even severe physical after-effects from the abortion, but they say this is the price they are nobly willing to pay, to spare their loved ones the burden of a disabled child in the family, and to spare the innocent young one the burden of being born to suffer.

I know this is wrong. You know this is wrong. But what do we say or do that will convince these women that the better course is to let the baby live, and let it experience love for as long as its short life will permit?

If the baby is dying, it will die. But people do give birth to severly handicapped babies, and they hold them, and feed them, and love them, knowing that there's a big difference between natural death and deliberate murder; and knowing that to give and to receive love is the meaning of life.

How do we convince people that we owe our own children "ordinary care," a decent welcome into life --- warmth --- milk --- not the needle and the knife?