Posted on 09/10/2008 5:52:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON -- In addition to Barack Obama making history as the first African-American to be nominated for president and Sarah Palin taking her shotgun to the glass ceiling, there was a third civil rights barrier broken at the political conventions this year.
Trig Paxson Van Palin -- pronounced by his mother "beautiful" and "perfect" and applauded at center stage of the Republican convention -- smashed the chromosomal barrier. And it was all the more moving for the innocence and indifference of this 4-month-old civil rights leader.
It was not always this way. When John F. Kennedy's younger sister Rosemary was born mentally disabled in 1918, it was treated as a family secret. For decades Rosemary was hidden as a "childhood victim of spinal meningitis." Joseph Kennedy subjected his daughter to a destructive lobotomy at age 23. It was the remarkable Eunice Kennedy Shriver who talked openly of her sister's condition in 1962 and went on to found the Special Olympics as a summer camp in her backyard -- part of a great social movement of compassion and inclusion.
Trig's moment in the spotlight is a milestone of that movement. But it comes at a paradoxical time. Unlike African-Americans and women, civil rights protections for people with Down syndrome have rapidly eroded over the last few decades. Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by pre-natal testing each year, about 90 percent are eliminated by abortion. Last year the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended universal, early testing for Down syndrome -- not just for older pregnant women. Some expect this increased screening to reduce the number of Down syndrome births far lower than the 5,500 we see today, perhaps to less than 1,000.
The wrenching diagnosis of 47 chromosomes must seem to parents like the end of a dream instead of the beginning of a life. But children born with Down syndrome -- who learn slowly but love deeply -- are generally not experienced by their parents as a curse but as a complex blessing. And when allowed to survive, men and women with an extra chromosome experience themselves as people with abilities, limits and rights. Yet when Down syndrome is detected through testing, many parents report that genetic counselors and physicians emphasize the difficulties of raising a disabled child and urge abortion.
This is properly called eugenic abortion -- the ending of "imperfect"
lives to remove the social, economic and emotional costs of their existence. And this practice cannot be separated from the broader social treatment of the disabled. By eliminating less perfect humans, deformity and disability become more pronounced and less acceptable. Those who escape the net of screening are often viewed as mistakes or burdens. A tragic choice becomes a presumption -- "Didn't you get an amnio?" -- and then a prejudice. And this feeds a social Darwinism in which the stronger are regarded as better, the dependant are viewed as less valuable, and the weak must occasionally be culled.
The protest against these trends has come in interesting forms. Last year pro-choice Sen. Edward Kennedy joined with pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback to propose a bill that would have required medical professionals to tell expectant parents that genetic tests are sometimes inaccurate and to give them up-to-date information on the quality of life that people with Down syndrome can enjoy. The bill did not pass, but it was a principled gesture from Rosemary's brother.
Yet the pro-choice radicalism held by Kennedy and many others -- the absolute elevation of individual autonomy over the rights of the weak -- has enabled the new eugenics. It has also created a moral conflict at the heart of the Democratic Party. If traditional Democratic ideology means anything, it is the assertion that America is a single moral community that includes everyone. How can this vision possibly be reconciled with the elimination of Down syndrome children from American society? Are pro-choice Democrats really comfortable with this choice?
The family struggles of political leaders can be morally instructive.
Contrast the attitude of Joseph Kennedy with that of Charles de Gaulle, who treated his daughter Anne, born with Down syndrome in 1928, with great affection. The image of this arrogant officer rocking Anne in his arms at night speaks across the years. After her death and burial at the age of 20, de Gaulle turned to his wife and said, "Come. Now she is like the others."
And now we have met Trig, who is just like the others, in every way that matters.
My God. I never knew.
I have a severely austistic daughter. Seven years old, can’t talk, isn’t toilet-trained, walks with difficulty, likes to chew things and destroy things.
I love that little bug. She doesn’t know how to hate. She never put anyone down. For all the things she can’t do, she CAN show me and the world around her that you don’t need to be like the world.
Concerning Gen. DeGaulle...despite the actions of those who have come after him, I shall never again associate him with the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” crowd.
They might not appreciate it fully, but I believe they know. I read their statement before he was born and thinking about it makes me, a not deeply religious woman, cry. Sarah and Todd Palin said that they were humbled that God ‘entrusted’ that baby to them.
Plus, Sarah is one of those women who has so much energy, if there were a way to harness it, she could probably keep Alaska warm through the winter. She runs marathons - that takes training. She’s in an aerobics group. She hunts, fishes, cooks, does ornament exchanges. She’s probably in a book club and taking lessons of some sort (golf, tennis, language). Knowing all those things about her makes me suspect that she might be on foundations or boards that would enable her to understand what raising a child with Down Syndrome is like.
Cat 5 Sarah - Bring it on!
He went up a couple of notches in my book, too.
From wiki:
On 22 August 1962, Charles de Gaulle was the victim of an attempted assassination at Petit-Clamart. He later said that the potentially fatal bullet had been stopped by the frame of the photograph of Anne that he always carried with him, placed this particular day on the rear shelf of his car.
**As the father of a 25 year old son with Down Syndrome, I know.**
Thanks for sharing your part of this story.
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The eugenic abortion of Downs Syndrome babies is another aspect of the way our modern society is flirting with a utilitarian evaluation of human life. Parents are urged to weigh the value of the life of the child against the costs of high levels of care and support that the child will require. The vast majority look at this calculation and come down on the side of death over life.
Similarly, in the debate over Embryonic Stem Cell Research, we are encouraged to consider the value of the supposed miracle cures that could be realized, and weigh that against the human life value of the embryos destroyed (if any). It seems that most voters are coming down on the side of death on this issue, as well.
And now, medical ethicists are discussing changing the criteria to determine when death has occured, with an eye to a more permissive standard in order to facilitate organ transplants. Again, people seem to be concluding that the value of the organs outweighs the value of the individual life involved.
We are heading down this road along multiple lanes. If government siezes control of medical care, we can count on them applying a utilitarian standard when it comes time to ration care. They will literally sieze the power of life and death, and the people will willingly give it up.
Against this tide stand Sarah, Todd and Trig Palin.
bookmark for later
Me, too ... and I hadn't heard of Anne de Gaulle until today.
Thank you for your post. This is one of the most beautiful I have ever read and I’m so glad that you chose to post it here.
And thank you, Kaslin, for posting John Fund’s article.
I am passing both of these along to all my friends and making hard copies for those who do not have a computer.
Your HOmepage is terrific, Kolokotronis!
Thank-you for the kind words. :)
I can say as a grandmother, you are a very, very special father. Your son is very blessed to have you, as you are to have him. Just thinking of your lovely tribute to him makes me smile. We can only pray that these babies will not be turned away as they have been in the past; they are all children of God.
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