The American Spectator

Thank you for your insightful, timely, jarring article regarding the obsession with aborting the unborn disabled. I have often wished that I had a forum from which I could demand that everyone read the first chapter of A Brave New World, in which the reader is treated to a clinical description of the baby factories where manipulation of the unborn for the purpose of social engineering takes place with the cruelest efficiency and indifference. As with so many things today, our society has gone so far as to remove the possibility of hyperbole in art because we have taken what used to be considered outlandish scare-scenarios and made them into the law of the land.

My own family has had to cope with the devastation of handicapped children. My cousin Eugene, in his early twenties, suffers from spina bifida. Had he been conceived in today’s moral climate, the doctors would likely have done everything in their power to convince his parents to avoid the inconvenience. Instead, my aunt and uncle chose to accept the responsibilities stemming from their marriage, their Faith, and their love and persevere. It has not been easy. But through their work and Eugene’s, his life, which has always been intrinsically worth living, has been exceptional. He stubbornly learned to walk even though he lacks feeling in his legs. He swam in the Special Olympics. He was a graduation speaker for his high school class. In fact he has done so well that my aunt and uncle tell me that he has lived beyond the normal life-expectancy for spina bifida. Every day is literally a unique frontier.

Another cousin of mine, Christina, was told about a year ago, while pregnant with her third child, that the baby would suffer from Tay-Sachs disorder. The doctor not only insisted that she get an abortion, but declared that if she did go through with the pregnancy, absolutely no effort would be expended to care for newly born child. Christina and her husband Mike decided that their respect for life and their Catholicism trumped the utilitarian “expertise” of their “doctor.” Several months later baby Noah was born, perfectly healthy, thanks to the faith of his parents and their willingness to spurn the intimidation and condescension of those experts who long ago traded the Oath of Hippocrates for the Ethic of Hypocrisy.

I watched with horror as Terri Schiavo was starved, no, I’m sorry, they say she dehydrated to death….simply because she was disabled and it was inconvenient her husband to care for her. After all, he had another family already to care for, how could he be expected to care for a disabled wife.

Eugenics seeks to prevent such a scenario like this, supporters say. Well, if I had a dollar for every false/positive test when pregnant women have been told they were carrying a disabled child, only to deliver a perfectly healthy baby, I’d be a millionaire today! We are finite humans with finite tests, a lot of which give erroneous results.