Tennessee Woman Chooses Child’s Life over Her Own

LifeSiteNews ^ | 3/2/07 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

NASHVILLE, March 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Thursday, February 15, at the age of 31, Jennifer Ann Carlisle gave up her life to cancer after refusing an abortion that doctors told her might have extended her life.

Jennifer had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005. At two months gestation, long before any chance of saving the child’s life outside the womb, Jennifer was told that she would die from the soccer ball-sized tumour if she did not abort the baby.

“Even though the doctors did say it would extend her life to have the abortion, she and her husband made the decision to let God choose," said Carol Day, Jennifer's mother.

“They decided God would make that decision, not her,” Jennifer’s aunt, Jackie Murdock, told the Niles Daily Star. “She wouldn't decide somebody else's life.”

Murdock recalled her niece saying, “Whether she lives or dies she will not abort her baby.”

Gabriel Carlisle was born in January 2006 and Jennifer underwent aggressive chemotherapy but after a brief summer remission, her condition worsened. She attended church services Sunday February 11, and died the following week.

“I told her that I loved her," Joshua said, recalling when his wife died in his arms surrounded by family. "And I told her that she needed to go on, that God was calling her home.” They had been married ten years.

“I held her and she took her last breath. There was a peace at that last minute that's just indescribable,” Joshua told Nashville’s TV News Channel 5.

The Carlisles’ church and community are rallying to assist the family. A benefit auction and concert to help pay for medical expenses were held at Christ Community Church in Franklin Tennessee.

Joshua told local news media, “I’m hoping that we don't get any more doctor bills but they're still coming in.” 

“I guess she knew the secret of life and it is not in receiving but giving,” Joshua said.

[Pinkbell]

Good post. Obviously there would be no life if men weren't involved. I believe both should take an equal role in parenthood and protecting the child. What I always think is horrible is that men are unable to say a word when a woman goes for an abortion. Whether the man wants the child or not, there is nothing that he is can do to stop her that is legal.

It gets difficult with extreme feminists. They look at the pregnancy as a defect, but I want them to see that the pregnancy but a wonderful gift that helps define womanhood.

[santangel]

This was my story...God blessed me an I am still here. I wish her family all God's love. She is in his hands now. My heart cries for her family.

[i_dont_chat]

I think you missed the whole point.

She allowed God to decide. She didn't try to "play God" and calculate how long her life was going to be or how she might be able to "manage" things on her own.

She left it in God's hands.

[zook]

When I was very young my family visited my relatives for Christmas in Alabama. My aunt was about to deliver any day. The day came a couple days after Christmas. My parents and brother and I had gone for a drive that day around Mobile Bay. When we got back to my aunt's house that evening we were shocked to learn that she had died in childbirth that day.

It had come down to this: The doctors could save her, but at the cost of her baby's life. But she told them no, put the baby's life first.

It was such a sad time--but I was only 8 and it never hit me so hard until I became a parent myself.

[wagglebee]

The DUmmies seem to have a VERY DIFFERENT impression of this valiant woman's act of love:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x327075

[Argus]

Evidently they're not all insane. Here's "Worldresident"'s post:

The lady had cancer here, and she made a choice that's justifiable. She was the judge ... nobody else ... and may she rest in peace.

[wagglebee]

You're right a FEW were rational, most exhibited a disgusting level of selfishness.

[Kitty Mittens]

God Bless this family!

Amen!

[Gay State Conservative]

By their responses it's pretty clear which ones have some sort of appreciation for "self sacrifice" and which ones don't.

So maybe...just maybe...some members of DUmmie Land aren't *completely* narcissistic (or amoral).

[Mr. Silverback]

Though I see your point about "extend," it's likely that the reporter used that term because a cure wasn't certain. I'd say, however, that it wouldn't have been a bone of contention with the docs if they were talking about a few months.

[Coleus]

I know of a woman who had cancer and had an abortion so that she could receive chemotherapy and subsequently died of the cancer.  She died and her baby died.  So, who won?

 

St. Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for her.

 

Gianna Beretta, Who Died for Her Unborn Child, to Be Canonized (She Refused Cancer Treatment)

 

Gianna Beretta Molla (1922-1962), biography

 

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

 

Mother sacrifices self for unborn baby (another saint enters heaven...)

 

[oryvizo]

Wow...what faith. May God bless that family...what Jennifer did was pretty incredible, but it's going to be tough for the little ones to grow up motherless. My prayers are with them.

[right way right]

They did not get their sacrament thats what they cannot handle.

Darkened Hearts depraved minds.

[right way right]

Best not to go to that Demon posessed website.

[wagglebee]

Someone alerted me to it.

[Mr. Silverback]

You are a heroine.

[RebelBanker]

God bless them indeed.

This sounds all too much like the story of my brother-in-law's first wife. She was pregnant with their fourth child when she was diagnosed with cancer. She refused to abort the baby or have any treatment that would harm her little girl, hoping against hope to have one more child before giving up her own life. Sadly, the baby died two days before her mother did. My brother-in-law's faith and family enabled him to keep going and be a truly outstanding father to the three children he already had.

[incredulous joe]

Wow!

[samiam1972]

These children that she left behind have an amazing mother. I can't imagine knowing that my life was soon going to end and that I would miss my children growing up. However, if I had cancer and was going to die before long anyway, I like to think that I would make a similar decision. What better gift to the existing children than another sibling to grow with. A this last child will always know how much his/her mother loved him.

It's sad that things like this have to happen. We all weep for their loss.

[wagglebee]

I cannot imagine how that must have been to endure.